Drizly inks deal with MillerCoors to offer free beer delivery service

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Drizly, the Boston-based maker of an alcohol delivery mobile app, is now offering free Miller Lite delivery in four cities.

Sara Castellanos

Technology Reporter- Boston Business Journal

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Drizly, the Boston-based maker of an on-demand alcohol-delivery service mobile app, has inked a deal with Chicago-based beer brand MillerCoors to offer free beer delivery service in four major cities.

The deal is historic, because it's the first time an American brewer has partnered with an e-commerce company to sell its beer online, according to The Wall Street Journal.

MillerCoors paid Drizly to help develop an online store where consumers in Boston, New York, Seattle and Washington can buy 12- and 24-packs of Miller Lite, to be delivered to customers by local retailers, according to the Journal.

Drizly, dubbed "the Amazon.com for alcohol" was founded by Boston College graduate Nick Rellas, and the app has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times.

The startup makes money by charging a flat monthly license fee to liquor stores, which ranges between hundreds of dollars and thousands of dollars depending on the size of the liquor store.

Drizly, founded in 2012, is backed by about $5 million in funding from investors including Cambridge-based Suffolk Equity Partners and Chicago-based private equity firm Continental Investors. The startup employs about 20.