Fast Grocery Startups Continue Stocking Up on Big Cash
Cajoo, a 15 minutes or less fast grocery delivery specialist from France, has raised $40 million in fresh funding. The lead investor on the deal for the startup with the sneezy-sounding name is grocery giant Carrefour. As part of the deal, Carrefour will allow Cajoo to leverage its purchasing organization.
Cajoo is part of a growing cohort of fast grocery (and creatively-named) startups like Weezy, Gorillas, Flink, GoPuff, and JOKR that are building networks of dark stores to deliver a variety of products in (largely) metro areas in the US, Europe, and Asia. The delivery times vary slightly (some promise 10, others 15), as do the products (some are just essentials while others focus on fresh food), but all are looking to expand fast by raising big cash.
Carrefour’s interest in Cajoo makes me wonder if big grocery giants will begin to partner with or acquire fast-grocery startups to compete with Amazon. In recent years, Amazon, which doesn’t offer 15-minute delivery (at least yet), has been putting pressure on grocery providers to up their games with their one-hour or less delivery. While Amazon is much stronger in the US when it comes to grocery (though its presence in Europe is growing), established grocery companies like Carrefour probably see a future where fast-grocery is a utility and are preparing accordingly.
What will be interesting to watch is how established grocery players mesh operations with fast-grocery providers over time. Big players like Kroger and Walmart have widely distributed networks of warehouses and retail stores, but in the fast-grocery business, where neighborhood proximity is key, startups build out their dark store networks zip code by zip code.
For those old enough to remember Kozmo.com, it’s easy to see the similarities with this new generation beyond just the funny name. But unlike Kozmo, this new wave of fast-grocery startups comes at a time when advances in logistics technology, mobility and automation make distributed fast-grocery possible and when consumers en mass are shopping online for daily necessities.
Some are already suggesting online grocery is reaching a saturation point and consolidation is around the corner. While I think this is probably right, I also expect fast-grocery startups to keep bagging big funding rounds for at least the next 6-12 months until the buying frenzy starts.
Fast Grocery isn’t the only funding story this week. Here’s what else happened in food tech funding:
Alt Protein
Plantible Foods, $21.5 million: Plantible Foods, a startup which grows plantweed (aka Lemna), has raised $21.5 million to help fund growth. The San Diego based startup has developed a process to produces a protein that has many of the functional properties of egg white as well a neutral taste and color. The protein is based on RuBiSco enables egg white applications like emusifying and binding for products like creamers and cream cheeses.
Stockeld Dreamery, €16.5 million – Stockeld Dreamery, a maker of plant-based cheese alternatives, raised €16.5 million. The company’s flagship product is a feta alternative made from a base of fermented peas and fava beans. The company is planning to use the new capital to grow its team from 22 people to about 50. In 2022, Stockeld will move into a pilot production plant and headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden.
Ag Tech
Fieldin Raises $30 Million: Fieldin, an ag tech startup that makes tools that digitizes the management of farms, has raised $30 million series B. The company has developed what it calls an agricultural operating system (AgOS) that uses AI and IoT tech to help farmers manage “the entire growing cycle from planning to execution, including equipment, workers, materials, and more.” Sensors are installed on farm equipment like tractors and sprayrs and, according to Fieldin, turns it into ‘smart’ machines.
Protealis, €5.7 Million: Protealis, a company that provides sustainable seeds for protein crops, raised a €5.7 Million in an extension of a Series A round it started earlier this year with a €6 Million investment. The company develops new variants of seeds of protein crops like soy that breed faster and are more resilient.
CPG
Poppi, $13.5 Million: Prebiotic soda company Poppi raises a $13.5 million Series A2 led by CAVU Ventures with some help from celebrities Russell Westbrook and the band the Chainsmokers, and a few others. The company’s ties to CAVU go back to when founders (husband-wife team Stephen and Allison Ellsworth) appeared on Shark Tank in 2018 and got an investment firm’s co-founder Rohan Oza for its prebiotic filled soda.
Allklear, $1.3 Million: Hong Kong-based functional beverage startup Allklear has raised a $1.3 million (HK$10 million) pre-A funding round. The company’s flagship beverage is called Detox Future Salad that is packed with 12 ingredients and 25 essential nutrients that the founder claims is equivalent to five bowls of salad.
nu company, €14 million: nu company, which likes lower-case letters and better-for-you chocolate, has raised a €14 million Series A funding round. The company has a chocolate bar brand in nucao and also has an organic protein brand numove. The company’s products are in 10 thousand stores today and the company has seen triple digital growth over the past four years.
Food Robots & Automation
Gatik, $85 Million: Robotic delivery startup Gatik has raised $85 million Series B, bringing its total funding to $114 million. The company specializes in middle mile delivery, which is shuttling goods between businesses such as between a distributor’s warehouse to a retail store. The company will use the funds to expand operations in Texas, its fourth delivery area, for its all-electric box truck.
Grocery Tech
Zippin, $30 Million: Cashierless checkout startup Zippin raised $30 million to continue to expand its operations across four continents. Zippin joins others like Grabango, Sensei, and Tripo in raising funds this year as the grocery industry accelerates its push into the automated checkout space. The automated checkout cohort is just one segment in a growing array of new companies hoping to help the grocery industry modernize its tech stack. Over the past half-decade, the industry has been racing to modernize their often antiquated technology both in-store and online as they see Amazon trying to pull customers away and companies like Instacart looking to front-end and disintermediate them.
That’s it for this week. If you have funding news you want in ou weekly food tech news wrapup, let us know. And make sure you subscribe if you want to get the The Week in Food Tech Funding in your inbox.
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