Starling

Starling, legally Starling Innovations Inc. and formerly BLSH Delivery, is a Toronto, Ontario company providing same-day local delivery of food and perishables across Southern Ontario. It positions itself as a distribution service connecting specialty food makers with retailers and end consumers, handling goods that require careful handling such as highly perishable, fragile and temperature-controlled items. The service was purpose-built around scheduled deliveries carried out by professional drivers so that baked goods and other artisan food creations arrive intact, on time and fresh.

The offering spans both business-to-business and business-to-consumer delivery. For food makers, Starling promotes reduced distribution costs, access to a Local Retailer Network, additional sales channels and expansion into new markets, supported by a team that works with partners on sales. A public service map tool lets prospective customers enter pickup and drop-off postal codes to check coverage, available services and rates for a given route, and to request notification when an unserved route becomes available. The company also runs a help center covering onboarding, billing and account management, booking and managing deliveries, pickup preparation and driver partner resources, with separate support and billing email channels.

Starling recruits independent drivers, advertising a living wage, self-set hours and fast payment. It publishes customer stories about Southern Ontario food businesses it works with, including the Little Harvest grocery market at The Well in Toronto, the bakery and dessert cafe The Grand Order of Divine Sweets on Queen Street, and Courage Cookies.

Founding story

Sarah and Kate Brown, two sisters from Toronto with a family background in baking and chocolate-making, founded the business in 2020 during pandemic lockdowns after observing that buying from large online marketplaces had become more convenient than buying from local neighbourhood shops, and after seeing local shops close permanently. The company launched as BLSH Delivery — short for "Buy local, stay home" — an affordable on-demand home delivery service for Toronto's local shops handling retail goods of all kinds.

Business model

Starling operates a tech-enabled local delivery and distribution service, partnering with foodservice suppliers, food makers and retailers of all sizes. Deliveries are performed by a fleet of contracted driver partners, with services and rates defined by pickup and drop-off route. Prospective business partners are onboarded through a booking consultation.

Delivery services are sold to food makers, foodservice suppliers and retailers, with rates presented per route based on pickup and drop-off postal codes; the company operates billing and account management functions for partner accounts.

Traction

Published customer stories name partner businesses including Little Harvest, The Grand Order of Divine Sweets and Courage Cookies.