As consumers were stuck at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, eGrocery startups – those delivering food staples and household items from door-to-door – proliferated.
Funding to the category soared to nearly $19 billion in 2021, a 35% share of the overall agrifoodtech industry, bolstered even further by the more general venture capital boom of that year, according to AgFunder data. As the phenomenon was global, the category soared above others in most parts of the world at the same time.
But after the world recovered from the pandemic, and global populations have returned to “normal” daily life, how has the category fared?
From necessity to lasting trend
The demand for eGrocery services has not significantly declined since the pandemic ended. In fact, it’s going to grow in the next few years.
Convenience is still king and consumers, already used to buying whatever they want within days via sites like Amazon, now want that for food but within hours or even minutes. Online grocery and meal delivery are expected to outpace offline, in-store growth over the next years, with a joint CAGR of 16% over the period 2023-2030, versus the 2% expected for offline groceries, according to a 2024 McKinsey report on the state of European grocery retail.
The competition has been fierce. Major players have vied for market share, struggling with thin margins, high-cost logistics, and the need to achieve profitability. And there have been some epic failures as a result (see for example Getir’s well-documented exit from the UK and the US, as well as less high-profile busts for Boxed and Voly ), while other companies have gone through mergers and acquisitions (Gorillas, FreshGoGo, Mercatus, among others).
Surprisingly, despite the consolidation and domination of a few major players, investment in eGrocery startups still represents nearly 16% of agrifoodtech funding in 2024 so far. But does that tell the whole story?
Let’s dig into the data.
eGrocery startup funding by the numbers
$47.9 billion: the total raised in eGrocery over 10 years
22%: the market share of eGrocery startups among all agrifoodtech in 10 years
$18.8 billion: eGrocery funding in 2021
$1.7 billion: eGrocery funding in 2024 (up to Sept. 15)
2023: The only year in a decade when eGrocery was not the top funded agrifoodtech category. Ag Biotech was with $2.2 billion, just $200 million more.
2,458: the total number of deals over the past 10 years, which peaked at 393 in 2021, down to just 38 deals so far in 2024.
$23.6 million: 2024’s average eGrocery deal size (excluding a $1 billion outlier)
14: the number of seed stage deals in 2024 so far, down from 88 in 2023.
eGrocery in recovery?
The category may break its funding freefall since 2021 this year, raising $1.7 billion so far and taking a 16% share of agrifoodtech compared to 12% in 2023. Yet it’s as yet unclear if it will beat the $2 billion total from last year and it's still being bested by Ag Biotech, which currently has $1.9 billion in raised funds.
Emerging markets and Europe have led the way for eGrocery funding so far this year, dominated by India with $1.1 billion across 11 deals – Zepto took $1 billion of that with two late-stage rounds, one in June and one in August. The Netherlands is second with $388 million, albeit from a single large deal; Germany is third with $106.7 million, also from a single deal; the United States follows with $54.6 million across six deals, and France is fifth with $52.6 million from four deals.
Yet it appears as if new entrants are not coming into the category; seed-stage funding activity has been declining since 2021; just 14 deals have closed so far this year, down from 88 in 2023, following a 41% year-over-year drop in 2023. Most of the dollar funding is concentrated at the later stages as mature eGrocery companies expand their operations further.
So while consumer demand for better and quicker eGrocery is on the up, much of that new innovation is likely to come from outside of the eGrocery category, impacting more than just that category. Automated warehouses, delivery robots, inventory management systems, and machine learning algorithms to predict demand, optimize delivery routes, and personalized recommendations are being developed to help increase efficiencies for eGrocery but also other parts of the food supply chain. These innovations would more typically be found in AgFunder's Cloud Retail Infrastructure, Midstream Tech and In-store Restaurant & Retail Technologies categories.
10 years of global eGrocery investment
Over the past 10 years, (Q4 2014/Q3 2024) China has raised the most amount of funding for eGrocery startups with $14.1 billion across 165 deals. Yet eGrocery funding activity in the world’s second-largest economy has completely crashed since with no deals thus far reported to AgFunder in 2024 and only $7 million raised in 2023. This could be due to a change in the local financial climate as well as to a delay in reporting.
The US has attracted $12.1 billion across 637 deals in a decade, while India is third with $6.5 billion distributed across 368 deals.
Germany is the most active European country for eGrocery funding, investing $3.6 billion in 62 deals. Turkey is fifth with $1.8 billion shared by 21 deals.
Top deals of 2024 so far:
Zepto. Founded in 2020 in Parel, India, the company first raised $665 million in June, then another $340 million in August of this year, The two late rounds allowed the startup to secure funding of over $1 billion in 2024, bringing its total so far to $ 1.6 billion. Zepto offers a ten-minute grocery delivery service with an app listing over 2,500 products. The company’s vision is to become the go-to platform for consumers seeking quick and reliable grocery delivery, while creating a robust supply chain and operational model that can be scaled across various markets. The company is now valued at over $5 billion.
Picnic. Founded in 2015 in the Netherlands, the company has raised $388.1 million in January with a late round. Overall it has raised $1.5 billion. Picnic is a fast-growing tech company that has developed a mass-market home delivery system for fast moving consumer goods.
Flink Food. Founded in Berlin in 2020, the company secured $106.7 million in April via a series B round. To date it has raised around $1.3 billion. Flink developed an online platform delivering multi-category grocery products. Its application offers a wide selection of convenience items such as fresh herbs, fruits, bread, essentials, and home supplies delivered to the door within ten minutes. The company is presently operating in the Netherlands, Germany, and France.
La Fourche. The French startup, founded in La Corneuve in 2018, raised $26 million via a C round in March, reaching total funding of $38.1 million. The startup’s mission is to deliver affordable everyday organic products to a large customer base via a subscription model. Its platform offers thousands of organic products at discount prices thanks to a network of partnerships with producers and growers.
Rozana. Founded in Delhi in 2021, the company raised $22.5 million in March via a series A round, reaching total funding of $26.5 million. The startup is a rural e-commerce platform focusing on building exclusive partnerships with peers to leverage social networks and local communities for market expansion. With a mission to bring convenience to underserved communities, Rozana started with a few villages and has since expanded its reach to 14 districts covering over 13,000 villages and is now planning to expand to 35,000, with the goal to become the preferred channel for D2C brands in rural India.
Country Delight. Founded in 2015 in Gurgaon, India, the company raised $8.4 million in August 2024 in debt financing, after securing $9.1 million in May and $19.8 million in January via two late rounds, for a total funding of $37.2 million in 2024 and $195.4 million overall. Country Delight started as a dairy tech startup distributing cow and buffalo milk, ordered via app and delivered directly to customers' doorsteps. In time it has expanded its product list and is now delivering fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as other pantry items such as eggs, flour, baking mixes, butter, ghee, oil, bread, pulses, and more.
OneOrder. Founded in Cairo in 2022, the Egyptian startup raised $16 million with a series A round in May, bringin its total funding to $26.5 million. The company is a wholesale distributor catering to the HORECA sector, offering to supply the industry with reliable quality goods with embedded financing, at a consistent price and without the stress of managing various suppliers, all through a single user-friendly application.
Jow. The French startup was founded in Paris in 2017. It raised $13 million in February via a series A round and has so far raised $40.6 million. The company created an app to simplify shopping and offer advice on what to eat as well as recipes adapted to the customer's taste. It automatically creates a customized menu with recipes and fills users’ carts cart with the ingredients necessary to make the dishes.
Bene Bono. Founded in 2020 in Paris, this other French startup raised $10.9 million in March via an A round, taking its total funding to $19.2 million. The company is offering a variety of seasonal products purchased directly from farmers at a cheap price, allowing them to sell their rejected produce while at the same time offering customers access to reasonably priced organic produce, reducing overall food waste.
Crafty. Founded in Chicago in 2015, the American company raised $8.7 million in May via a series B round, bringing its total funding to $24.8 million. Crafty is a centralized platform for workplaces, enabling them to manage food, beverages, and supplies for their in-office, remote, and hybrid teams across the globe. Founded in 2015, it now manages over 260 international customer offices and serves over 300,000 employees per month.
Daki. Founded in São Paulo in 2020, the Brazilian startup raised $5.1 million in January via a late round, bringing its total funding to $105.1 million. Daki is a fast delivery service, offering a wide range of grocery products at competitive prices via its mobile app. It promises to deliver to customers within 15 minutes.
Oatbox was founded in 2014 in Montreal, Canada. It secured a $3.7 million series A round in April, taking its overall investment to $15.4 million. The company is on a quest to offer healthy sustainable Canadian oat-based foods, delivering a range of products including milk alternatives, breakfast cereals, handcrafted granola, oatmeal, breakfast bars, steel-cut oats, and more.