Last-mile delivery service Point Pickup Technologies has acquired GrocerKey, the US-based white-label e-commerce platform developer backed by supermarket chain Woodman’s Market and consumer data provider Dunnhumby, for a reported $42m.
Founded in 2015, Point Pickup counts some of the biggest food retailers in the US, including Walmart and Kroger, as its clients, delivering groceries to customers on their behalf.
With the purchase of GrocerKey, which develops e-commerce software for retailers, Point Pickup aims to get an edge on rivals like Instacart by offering retailers the ability to offer a full cycle same-day delivery service under their own brand names.
In addition to groceries, the company has broadened its offering to include pharmaceuticals, oversized delivery and general merchandise.
Woodman’s Market led a $2.5m funding round for GrocerKey in 2018 that included Dunnhumby’s corporate venturing arm, Dunnhumby Ventures, and unnamed angel investors, increasing its overall funding to $4.2m. It added $2.4m in December 2020, according to a securities filing.
Tom Fiorita, founder and chief executive of Point Pickup, said: “With almost 68 million US households placing online orders this past May, retailers no longer want to give away last mile business to other consumer-facing platforms.
“We listened to our clients and now with the integration of GrocerKey’s technology into our last-mile delivery platform, they can reclaim their brand and revenue while maintaining control of their e-commerce data and customer experience from start to finish.”
GrocerKey’s co-founder and chief executive, Jeremy Neren, will take up the role of executive vice president of e-commerce strategy at Point Pickup after the takeover.
While Point Pickup is billing its service as a first-of-its-kind in the sector, Walmart recently came out with its own white-label delivery service which it will make available to other retailers.
