Greece’s newly formed grocery delivery startup Pop Market has raised $3.5 million in a seed round led by Global Founders Capital and 468 Capital. The startup which was founded no more than 2 weeks ago, is taking orders via their app and is promising 15 minute delivery times. The seed funding will be used to spin up Pop Market’s domestic sprint, with a plan for rapid expansion across Greece — building out its nascent network of dark stores (it has four currently), scaling the supply chain and growing the team.
Pop Market cites data indicating that grocery retail in Greece was valued at €11.3 billion in 2020, yet points to analyst estimates suggesting less than 2% (approximately €163.3 million) is currently online, and this 2% comes with the price of long delivery times, wrong and missing items and even is most cases more expensive.
With the online food and beverage delivery being on the rise, having already brands like efood and Wolt to contribute, it is only a matter of time for more brands to start offering their services and even expand to groceries. “The biggest players in this market today are efood and Wolt. While both offer groceries, mostly through partnerships with traditional chains, the reality is that their roots are deep in the restaurant food delivery industry which largely affects how customers perceive them today,”. Nick Telecki, Pop Market’s co-founder explained. “What makes Pop special is that we are 100% focused on offering the fastest delivery of grocery, convenience and retail products. Being the only fully-dedicated ‘Quick-Commerce’ platform in the market is the only way to truly offer an unparalleled customer experience and capture consumer mindshare” he added.
CEO and co-founder Takis Malavetas also added “The fact that online grocery penetration is only 2% presents a massive opportunity for us. If you look at Greece holistically, the delivery market is much more mature compared to many other countries in Europe. When it comes to groceries specifically, there continues to be a big gap between customer expectations and what existing solutions in the market offer, often including long delivery times, high prices and wrong or missing items. That makes groceries the last but largest piece of the retail puzzle that has yet to transition online”.
Source: TechCrunch “Greece’s Pop Market, another dark store grocery delivery startup, gets $3.5M”
