US-headquartered Jokr has become the latest on-demand grocery delivery startup to disclose a large funding round, having secured $260m in series B funding from investors including HV Capital, the venture capital firm backed by publisher Holtzbrinck.
Mirae Asset, GGV Capital, Balderton Capital, Tiger Global Management, Activant Capital, Greycroft, G-Squared, Kaszek, Monashees and Moving Capital also contributed to the round, which valued the company – founded less than a year ago – at $1.2bn according to TechCrunch.
Jokr’ss on-demand grocery delivery service began life in Latin America before launching in New York City in June. It offers delivery in 15 minutes or less while boasting a product range tailored to be more specialised than other services.
As with many of its rivals, Jokr’s model involves maintaining a network of storage hubs in the city which enable its riders to load up and move rapidly. It pledges supermarket prices or lower and does not set a minimum order value, paralleling the experience of going to a local corner shop or bodega.
GGV Capital, Balderton and Tiger Global had previously co-led the company’s $170m series A round in July, investing alongside HV Capital, Activant Capital, Greycroft, FJ Labs, Kaszek and Monashees.
The latest funding will support expansion within Jokr’s existing markets, which include Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Bogota, Lima, Santiago, Rio de Janeiro and Warsaw, in addition to launching in new markets across the United States and Latin America.
Jokr’s founder and chief executive, Ralf Wenzel, told TechCrunch: “We were not planning to raise so soon – we had sufficient capital after raising the substantial round in July.
“Since then, we built out in so many different countries and began getting a lot of interest in what we were doing. Our existing investors wanted to double down on our phenomenal and healthy growth, as well as new investors. We are now well capitalised and happy about it.”
Although specialised online grocers had already taken the baton from traditional supermarket-run services, the covid-19 pandemic and its attendant lockdowns have driven increasing amounts of business online, with Instacart among the first wave of operators to raise large quantities of funding as they strained to meet demand.
Jokr is part of the sector’s next generation, many of which have been founded since early 2020, with all of them placing a particular focus on speed. It is arguably the most rapidly growing subsector since the ride hailing boom that got underway in the mid 2010’s.
Germany-based Gorillas raised $44m in series B funding less than a year ago but has since closed over $1.2bn in funding, most recently taking in up to $1bn in a September 2021 series C round led by food delivery service Delivery Hero and backed by internet and gaming group Tencent.
Getir may not be corporate-backed – and it is slightly older – but it is challenging Gorillas for dominance in the European market, having pulled in $555m through a June round valuing it at over $7.5bn.
GoPuff has also been around a little bit longer, but has put more effort into strengthening the speed of its on-demand consumer product service, and SoftBank Vision Fund led a $1bn round for the company in July at a $15bn valuation.
The on-demand groceries model was already in place in Asian markets such as China (through companies like Dingdong Maicai or Hema), but startups such as Astro and Dropezy are springing up in markets such as Southeast Asia prioritising speed and convenience.
A note of caution has to be struck however, given the fact some of the oldest, and largest, operators in China’s online grocery sector, such as Yiguo or MissFresh, have subsequently run into problems due to the difficulty of turning interest into profits. It will be interesting to see if the decentralised structure favoured by newer entrants can prove different.
Photo courtesy of Jokr.
