Joy Run

About Joy Run

JoyRun operated as a peer-to-peer delivery platform, founded in 2015 by Manish Rathi and Shama Pagarkar, that was ultimately acqui-hired by Walmart in late 2020. The company's genesis stemmed from its founders' observation of the prohibitive costs associated with traditional food delivery services. Pagarkar, with a background in product development and experience with marketplaces, envisioned a more community-driven model where users could fulfill delivery requests for each other. This peer-to-peer approach formed the core of JoyRun's business model, differentiating it from competitors like DoorDash and Uber Eats.

The service enabled a user, or "Runner," to announce a trip to a local restaurant or store through the app. Other users within the same geographic community could then add their own orders to the "Run." This social, group-ordering system significantly lowered costs for buyers, as one person could deliver multiple orders in a single trip. The platform was a three-sided marketplace connecting buyers, runners, and merchant partners. Runners set their own delivery fees, which were often minimal, or they could deliver for free out of goodwill. This model proved particularly successful in contained communities like college campuses and military bases, which were the company's initial focus. The expansion into military bases was an unplanned success, sparked by a user who saw its potential for the close-knit base communities.

Before its acquisition, JoyRun had expanded its service nationwide and surpassed one million deliveries. The company had raised $8.5 million in a Series A funding round in 2017, led by Floodgate. In November 2020, Walmart announced its acquisition of select assets from JoyRun, including its talent, technology platform, and intellectual property. The move was intended to augment Walmart's last-mile delivery capabilities, with the JoyRun team being integrated into Walmart's supply chain technology division to complement its existing Spark delivery program.