GrubMarket, the US-based operator of an online food retail platform, raised $120m yesterday in a series E round backed by Japan Post Capital, a subsidiary of postal service Japan Post.
The round included Liberty Street Funds, Walleye Capital, Joseph Stone Capital, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Tech Pioneers Fund, Celtic House Asia Partners, INP Capital, Reimagined Ventures, Moringa Capital Management and undisclosed others. It valued the company at over $1bn pre-money.
Founded in 2014, GrubMarket operates a mobile-based platform that lets consumers order deliveries of fresh groceries from farmers and other food producers. It has about 40 warehouses with operations in several states across the US and plans to further develop its technology and expand geographically.
Marubeni Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of conglomerate Marubeni, participated in a $90m series D round for the company that closed in February 2021.
The February round was also backed by Ace & Company, The Strand Partners, GGV Capital, Celtic House Venture Partners, Sixty Degree Capital, Reimagined Ventures, Trinity Capital Investment, Madison Bay Capital Partners and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.
GrubMarket had picked up $60m in an October 2020 tranche featuring Marubeni Ventures, internet company Digital Garage, Reimagined Ventures, Trinity Capital Investment, Celtic House Venture Partners, Sixty Degree Capital, Mojo Partners, GGV Capital, WI Harper Group, CentreGold Capital, Scrum Ventures and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.
Marubeni Ventures had supplied an undisclosed amount of funding for the business in May 2020 that may have been part of the series D round.
A regulatory filing shows GrubMarket raised $28.2m of series C1 funding in an April 2019 round co-led by Digital Garage and WI Harper that included conglomerates Fosun and Arancia Industrial in addition to Evolv Ventures, the corporate VC fund formed by packaged food producer Kraft Heinz.
CentreGold Capital, GGV Capital, Ace & Company, University Growth Fund, Fusion Fund, Bascom Ventures and unnamed other investors also took part in the 2019 round.
GrubMarket had collected $32m in a 2018 round backed by GGV Capital, Fusion Fund, Bascom Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Max Ventures, Castor Ventures, Millennium Technology Value Partners, Trinity Capital Investment and Investwide Capital.
Fosun, Arancia Industrial and Evolv Ventures had contributed a $20m series B round for the company in 2016. It had previously raised $10m in a series A round the year before that was led by Fosun and which drew in capital from GGV Capital, Y Combinator, Battery Ventures and AME Cloud Ventures.
GrubMarket had already pulled in $2.1m from GGV Capital, Y Combinator, New Gen Partners and assorted angel investors in 2014.