That's $8.5M they're going to spend proving (or disproving) market viability, at which point, if it's working:

- The stores themselves will just roll out their own competing services. They can't afford for a middle man to eat their margins.

- Existing players like Fresh Direct will leverage their complete control over stock and distribution to beat them on price and service. There's a lot of wiggle room when you don't have to deal with stocking physical store shelves.

I guess, thanks to AirBNB/Uber, that 'collaborative consumption' is the new hot VC investment.