Retail news that keeps industry pros in the know
Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.
Well, that was fast. Not even a year after it was founded, Jokr has become a unicorn (valuation: $1.2 billion) after announcing it raised $260 million in a Series B.
- Activant Capital, Greycroft, GGV Capital, and Tiger Global, among others investors, participated in the round.
- This brings the instant-delivery startup’s total funding to $430 million.
Let’s go: The fresh funds will fuel Jokr’s tech advancements and market expansion throughout Latin America and the US; it currently operates about 200 hubs in 15 cities worldwide.
- This follows news of the company shipping up to Boston this week (wicked).
“Customers want a more personalized, and local way of shopping. We’re doubling down on that as we go into new markets,” Tyler Trerotola, who helps lead Jokr’s US operation, told Retail Brew.
Me, me, me
The startup bets on its location-specific, data-driven product assortments to integrate its service into consumers’ lives. (Jokr’s proprietary algorithm analyzes order data to stock inventory based on local users’ purchasing patterns. ICYMI, we stepped inside one of its Brooklyn warehouses this summer to see it all in action.)
This kind of personalization is Jokr’s bread and butter and how it hopes to set itself apart from competitors. “Our tech solutions are moving forward. We’re very much focused on getting customers exactly what they want, when they want it,” Trerotola explained. The system will be driven by machine learning and understanding customers’ schedules and lifestyles, what times they place orders, their day-to-day travels, and their product selections.
“Today it’s 15 minutes for groceries. Tomorrow, it could be anything,” he added.
More, more, more: The word “grocery” is used sparsely in Jokr’s funding release, perhaps suggesting a shifting focus into new categories. CEO and founder Ralf Wenzel said the investment will go toward creating “the ultimate shopping proposition.”
“We want to be the biggest challenger to classical supermarkets and eventually to all of retail,” Wenzel told us via email. “We are creating the most customer-centric e-commerce business in history.”
+1: As hot as the rapid delivery space is, there have already been flameouts. New York–based 1520 reportedly shut down yesterday after burning through its capital; it was in talks with Jokr to get acquired, but the deal fell through, sources told Insider.
- Jokr says it has reached operational profitability in some markets, per Grocery Dive.—JG