附近上门

, an online supermarket based in Mexico City, has raised a $10 million seed round led by .

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New York-based , out of Chile, Spain鈥檚 , Silicon Valley-based , other unnamed funds and angels also participated in the round, which comes just months after the company raised a pre-seed round of an undisclosed amount.

, former president of (a large ride-sharing company operating in Latin America, Spain, and Portugal) founded earlier this year with a mission to 鈥渄isrupt the Latin American grocery industry.鈥�

At first, 闯眉蝉迟辞 operated a website only but recently launched a mobile app. It is the first supermarket in Mexico with no physical stores, according to Weder.

How It Works

Customers can buy their groceries directly from the website or via the app and 闯眉蝉迟辞 delivers the order to the customer鈥檚 location of choice.

While other entities such as Walmart, for example, deliver groceries in Mexico, 闯眉蝉迟辞 prides itself on working directly with fresh produce suppliers in an effort to offer 鈥渢he freshest鈥� fruits, vegetables, meats and fish in the market. It also offers a variety of products such as pantry staples, personal hygiene and beauty, home and cleaning, drinks and pet-related items.

Mexican, and Latin American consumers as a whole, have been reluctant to order groceries from some of these larger retailers and companies due to concerns about freshness and quality, Weder said.

The company opts to choose items only from local suppliers, thus giving them a new channel to sell their products (which can get buried in larger supermarkets). 闯眉蝉迟辞 also prides itself on developing fair trade agreements with suppliers.

Initially, 闯眉蝉迟辞 is focused on Mexico City but plans to expand into additional Mexican cities as well as other regions in Latin America such as Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile, according to Weder.

Regional Demand

, partner at Foundation Capital and also a Mexico City native, said he was impressed with Weder鈥檚 work at Cabify and was excited to get involved with this venture early on.

鈥淲e鈥檝e seen that type of model of warehouse and D2C for groceries be very successful in other geographies,鈥� he told me. 鈥淏ut that model didn鈥檛 quite exist in Mexico yet.鈥�

Increased internet penetration and the availability of smartphones in the region 鈥渙pens up a world of opportunity for an entrepreneur to reach consumers directly,鈥� Gonzalez said.

The investment in 闯眉蝉迟辞 marks Palo Alto, Calif.-based Foundation Capital鈥檚 fourth LatAm investment. It鈥檚 also backed Colombian unicorn . The funding is also another example of increasing global investor interest in Latin America. Mexican startups in particular raised a total of $310 million in venture funding in the first half of 2019, according to LAVCA, compared to $75 million in the first half of 2018, as you can see in the chart below.

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