France-based food marketplace La Ruche Qui Dit Oui has secured €8m ($9m) for a series B round from investors including XAnge, the investment vehicle of postal delivery company La Poste, TechCrunch reported yesterday.
The company also attracted Union Square Ventures, Felix Capital and Quadia for the round.
La Ruche enables consumers to sign up on the website and identify a local “ruche”. Once a week, the customer is sent an email with a list of available products and a market is organised in a local venue where producers sell directly to the consumers.
There are currently some 600 such assemblies available in France alone. The company also operates in Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK, and has no immediate plans to expand beyond Europe.
La Ruche Qui Dit Oui, which literally translates to The Hive that Says Yes, operates as The Food Assembly in the UK.
In 2012, XAnge and Siparex provided a €1.5m series A round. In 2010, Kima Ventures and angel investors Marc Simoncini and Christophe Duhamel invested €115,000 in seed funding.
In May 2014, La Ruche also secured €1.5m in debt financing from bank BNP Paribas.
Cyril Bertrand, partner at XAnge, will join La Ruche’s board.