(Reuters). Uber Technologies (NYSE 🙂 is a U.S. ride-hailing app that was founded by Uber Technologies. It’s also Europe’s most important retailer Carrefour The two companies announced Tuesday that they will launch a rapid delivery service for grocery shopping in Paris. This extends their existing 18-month partnership.

Carrefour Sprint offers a grocery delivery service within 15 minutes to Parisians only via Uber Eats’ mobile app. It is available from nine “dark store” shops, which are stores that workers close to customers to prepare orders. They will be operated by Carrefour partner Cajoo.

The French retailer, Inc., agreed earlier this year to acquire a minority share in Cajoo’s newly established start-up. Cajoo operates “dark shops” throughout the country.

Establishing retailers and food distributors face fierce competition from “dark store” networks that are well-funded, with the ability to deliver groceries on-the-go via a smartphone app.

“Over the past 18 months people have increasingly come to expect quick and reliable delivery … in Europe alone we’ve seen a triple-digit increase in demand for grocery delivery,” Eve Henrikson, Regional General Manager, Uber Delivery EMEA, said in a statement.

Uber and Carrefour have already started offering French 30-minute delivery from Carrefour’s nearly 2,000 stores on Uber’s App under an agreement last year.

Separately, both companies struck separate agreements to expedite delivery with other market players, such as Deliveroo (Britain) and Casino (France).

Uber and Carrefour intend to increase the service’s 15-minute duration to more French cities, such as Lyon and Bordeaux in the next weeks.