The so-called quick commerce has been in Delivery Hero‘s plans for many years, with the pandemic and the consequent lockdowns triggering a huge wave of investments in Europe and the USA.
Of course, especially in a country like Greece, where shopping in the supermarket is a walk and a kind of entertaiment, in order to be able to develop the services of delivering supermarket items at home, they must deliver within 15-30 minutes, cover all the necessary codes (3,000-5,000 is estimated by the market) and of course be offered at competitive prices and have zero or minimum delivery fee.
We understand that in order for deliveries to be implemented in 10-15 minutes, as is currently the case in Berlin, for example, a network of warehouses will have to be set up at key points in the respective area of operation with optimal organization of product supply and distribution. For example, the first company to bring quick commerce to Greece, ekioskys (which has currenrtly been acquired by Delivery Hero) made deliveries within 20-30 minutes but there was an issue with the availability of online products.
Huge global investments and “Fridge No More”
In order to set up a warehouse system, logistics and last-mile delivery with 2,000+ codes, huge amounts are needed and this is verified by the investments made on both sides of the Atlantic.
Getir (Turkey), Flink (Germany), Gorillas (Germany) have raised a total of more than 3 billion dollars so far and they are all three unicorns apparently.
In the U.S. beyond the big players we observe a wave of new startups that promise deliveries of supermarket items within 15 minutes to specific areas such as Manhattan, New York. Buyk, Fridge No More, Jokr is in this category with these three startups have raised about 300 million dollars in Seed funding.
In any case, the name of Fridge No More sets the tone for where these on demand supermarket deliveries startups are aiming.
Pop Market and (Greek) investors
Pop Market was founded in Cyprus, and is active in Athens, by Takis Malavetas, Aris Georgiou and Nick Telecki. Takis Malavetas was the founder of Convibo and Homerun in the UK, with a similar subject, while Nick Telecki was an investment executive at Delivery Hero.
The company has received the largest Seed funding for a greek startup according to statements by Takis Malavetas in Kathimerini, from Global Founders Capital and 468 Capital, with the former having Delivery Hero in its portfolio. Information also indicates that other Business Angels and VentureFriends are also involved in the funding.
At this point, we should mention that VentureFriends and its partners have funded efood, Takis Malavetas’ HomeRun and Instashop (which was acquired by Delivery Hero) and are preparing to enter dynamically in the same market in Athens. Already the first warehouse of Pop Market operates in the center of Athens and many more are expected by the end of the year.
The great “gladiators” of on demand delivery in Greece
The situation at the moment in Greece is as follows: on the one hand we have Delivery Hero which has acquired a large distribution network, warehouses and stores with the acquisition of Kioskys and e-Kioskys plus Instashop, (which is also entering the field with information indicating that it will be the one that will complete all the brands and services of the quick commerce of Delivery Hero), and on the other hand we have Wolt, Pop Market and Pockee that starts deliveries of products in Thessaloniki.
We also understand that the supermarket chains and e-supermarket e-fresh should already start regrouping since many of them have already collaborated with the above services (e.g. Sklavenitis – efood and Delivery.gr with AB Vassilopoulos) and are now potential competitors since Delivery Hero, Pop Market (will) talk directly to the same suppliers. Of course, e-fresh is more ready to enter quick commerce since it already makes deliveries within a few hours in Attica while Sklavenitis’ emarket reports that the first delivery is made in 3 days!
The share of online delivery of supermarket products may be small for the time being but if startups manage to keep their promises with deliveries in 15 and 20 minutes and have money to waste in order to develop faster, the things won’t be easy for traditional players.