Corner store and café chain Foxtrot Market announced today that it has raised a $42 million Series B round of funding. Alamanac Insights and Monogram Capital Partners led the round with participation from David Chang, Imaginary Ventures, Wittington Ventures, Fifth Wall, Lerer Hippeau, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, M3 Ventures, The University of Chicago, Collaborative Fund, Wasson Enterprise, Bluestein Ventures, and Barshop Ventures.
Foxtrot launched in 2014 and in addition to being an “upscale” corner store, the business has app-based purchasing and makes its entire inventory available for delivery in under one hour. According to today’s press announcement, last year company sales increased more than 100 percent year-over-year.
On its website, Foxtrot currently lists 10 open locations across Chicago, IL and Dallas, TX, with two more coming to the Washington, D.C. area. With its new funding, Foxtrot said it expects to double its store count by the end of the year, adding as many as nine stores in Chicago and Dallas, along with further expansion into D.C. The new money will also go towards expanding its line of private label packaged goods and gifts, and further investment in its nationwide shipping.
As mundane as they may be in our everyday lives, the convenience store is going through a bit of a renaissance right now. DoorDash is not only delivering from convenience stores, but also building out its own line of delivery-only convenience stores. Also, more convenience stores are adopting new technology like cashierless checkout, thanks to startups like AiFi, Grabango and Zippin.
Foxtrot is also part of another trend we’re seeing at The Spoon: investment in speedy delivery. Over in Europe, both Weezy in the U.K. and Gorillas in Germany got funding in the past few months for their fast, corner store-like deliveries. Here in the U.S., GoPuff bought BevMo to expand its sub-30 minute delivery network.
The pandemic accelerated our need for delivery, and it looks like convenience and corner stores are definitely stepping up to deliver.
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