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Facedrive Inc. (" Facedrive ") (TSXV: FD) (OTCQX: FDVRF), a Canadian "people-and-planet first" tech ecosystem, is pleased to announce that its food delivery vertical, Facedrive Foods, has launched operations in the region of Scarborough, ON, in response to burgeoning customer demand. Moreover, Facedrive Foods continues to experience substantial growth, with orders exceeding 4,100 (on average) meal deliveries per day. Restaurant partners are now nearing 4,425 with over 250,000 active users registered on a platform that is now operational in 19 cities across Canada including Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Kingston, London, Edmonton and Halifax, and with expansion plans to other cities in Canada and the USA anticipated soon.
Facedrive Foods has capitalized on the dramatic shift in commerce patterns and consumer behavior in the wake of the pandemic and the current Ontario-wide State of Emergency. As store fronts and restaurants have limited their offerings to take out or delivery service exclusively, volumes of orders made through online on-demand food delivery platforms have soared. At the same time, consumers are increasingly demanding companies to do business in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. The tandem of these two trends has played strongly into the Facedrive Foods' playbook and ambitious expansion plans. In addition, the ethnically diverse North American market continues to demonstrate increasing demand for national cuisines, adding to the positive list of factors providing a strong tail-wind for Facedrive Foods.
Facedrive Foods is also continuously exploring opportunities to better serve its customer base by adding new services and app features. Thus, the company has expanded into grocery delivery services, connecting multiethnic supermarkets and convenience stores with the end customer. In addition, Facedrive Foods has increased its delivery radius – which varies from region to region but typically offers inter-city service – enabling service access for residents in remote areas who often find themselves underserved by conventional providers. Following the chorus of recently-announced hardware and software upgrades, the Facedrive Foods platform also expects to deploy a subscription service feature whereby loyal customers will be able to unlock additional cost saving coupons. Currently in a pilot stage but garnering substantial interest, subscriptions are anticipated to be available to all users on a weekly, monthly and annual basis as of February 2021.
Furthermore, Facedrive Foods is introducing a number of health and safety upgrades aimed at enhancing user health, safety, and confidence as the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic intensifies. One key safety precaution that has been rolled out throughout the Facedrive Foods platform is in-app temperature display. This function allows customers to see body temperature of the driver delivering their order and automatically disables drivers who exhibit above normal body temperatures. Another fundamental addition to the Facedrive Foods offering will be the integration of Facedrive's proprietary TraceSCAN product, a standalone contact-tracing wearable solution built on cutting-edge Bluetooth technology and enabling functionality such as contact-tracing and social distancing alerts.
Facedrive Foods will be the first food delivery platform to implement contact-tracing technology as a part of its COVID-19 prevention protocol. Rollout of the latest TraceSCAN wearable technology with Facedrive Foods drivers is aimed at protecting the health and safety of all platform users, supporting the government's efforts to slow down the spread of the pandemic, and helping communities and businesses minimize its adverse economic impact. By Q1 2021, Facedrive Foods expects integration with TraceSCAN to be complete and for all Facedrive Foods drivers to be donning TraceSCAN wearables.
"At Facedrive Foods, we are pleased to continue offering reliable, fast and responsible food delivery service to meet the needs of our communities. Our launch in Scarborough has again demonstrated that demand for food delivery services is growing at an astonishing rate," said Di Han, General Manager of Facedrive Foods. "As the second wave of the pandemic intensifies, complying with stringent safety protocols is the only way for businesses to remain open and for our consumers to have peace of mind when using services such as food delivery. All our offerings will continue to be centered on the safety and well-being of our customers and driver partners, as we all continue to navigate this global pandemic," added Han.
About Facedrive
Facedrive is a multi-faceted "people-and-planet first" tech ecosystem offering socially-responsible services to local communities with a strong commitment to doing business fairly, equitably and sustainably. As part of this commitment, Facedrive's vision is to fulfill its mandate through a number of verticals that either leverage existing technologies of the Company or project synergies with existing lines of business (the " Facedrive Verticals "). The Facedrive Verticals include its rideshare business (" Facedrive Rideshare "), sustainable e-commerce platform (" Facedrive Marketplace "), food-delivery service (" Facedrive Foods "), e-social platform (" Facedrive Social ") and its contact-tracing and sustainable health services business (" Facedrive Health ").
Facedrive Rideshare was among the first to offer a wide variety of environmentally and socially responsible solutions in the Transportation as a Service (TaaS) space, planting thousands of trees based on user consumption and offering choices between electric, hybrid and conventional vehicles (including, more recently, electric and hybrid vehicles on a subscription basis through Steer). Facedrive Marketplace offers curated merchandise created from sustainably sourced materials. Facedrive Foods offers contactless delivery of a wide variety of foods right to consumers' doorsteps, with a focus on doing so in a socially and environmentally-conscious manner. Facedrive Social strives to keep people connected in a physically-distanced world through its HiQ and other e-socialization platforms that invite users to interact based on common interests and by offering gamification and mutual community support features. Facedrive Health strives to develop and offer innovative technological solutions to the most acute health challenges including its proprietary TraceSCAN wearable technology for contact tracing. Facedrive envisions changing the ridesharing, food delivery, e-commerce, social and health tech narratives for the better, for everyone, and is currently operational in Canada and the United States.
For more about Facedrive, visit www.facedrive.com .
Facedrive Inc.
100 Consilium Pl, Unit 400, Scarborough, ON, Canada M1H 3E3
www.facedrive.com
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain information in this press release contains forward-looking information. This information is based on management's reasonable assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to us and are made as of the date of this press release. Actual results and the timing of events, such as those pertaining to the platform-wide rollout of the new TraceSCAN technology, may differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information as a result of various factors. Information regarding our expectations of future results, performance, achievements, prospects or opportunities or the markets in which we operate is forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not facts but instead represent management's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events or circumstances. Many factors could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements or future events or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.
See "Forward-Looking Information" and "Risk Factors" in the Corporation's Filing Statement dated August 28, 2019 for a discussion of the uncertainties, risks and assumptions associated with these statements. Readers are urged to consider the uncertainties, risks and assumptions carefully in evaluating the forward-looking information and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information. We have no intention and undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities law.
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Media: S ana Srithas | sana@facedrive.com
Sayan Navaratnam
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Tel: 1-888-300-2228
