Grocery delivery start-up Buymie has drummed up an additional €1.6m as it adds Unilever Ventures alumnus to its board of directors.
Same-day delivery grocery start-up Buymie has announced the closure of €1.6m in new venture funding and the appointment of Jan Harley, founding member of Unilever Ventures, to its board of directors.
It has also announced that it previously raised a seed funding round of €850,000 in 2018, prior to the launch of its partnership with Lidl Ireland.
The investment round, led by Haatch Ventures, also saw funding come in from HBAN, BVP Investments and Buymie’s existing shareholders.
“We’re very excited to announce this latest fundraise, not only to have our existing investors continue to support us, but also to have such strong support from new incredible investors like HBAN and BVP Investments,” commented Devan Hughes, CEO and co-founder of Buymie. “We are absolutely thrilled to have such a strong network of strategic and value-add investors joining us on this journey.
“Buymie has had a transformation 18 months. There has been tremendous growth in the on-demand/same-day delivery channel, visible by Amazon’s recent €500m investment into Deliveroo.
“The next 18 months will see some major developments in this space and Buymie’s focus will be on ensuring we continue to provide our retail partners with all of the technology and infrastructure to fight and win in this channel.”
Buymie also confirmed that it has added Jan Harley, a founding member of Unilever Ventures, to its board. Harley joined the venture funding wing of transnational consumer goods giant Unilever in 2002, focusing in particular on B2B technology companies in marketing, media, research and e-commerce spheres.
He has previously invested in and sat on the board of companies such as meal-delivery kit Gousto and Irish technology company Clavis Insight.
“I am super excited about the opportunity for Buymie in the European grocery retail space,” Harley said of the news. “As one of the few European investors who has invested in the US on-demand grocery market, I have seen first-hand the benefit that on-demand delivery can bring to grocery e-commerce. Buymie are extremely well placed to lead the wave in Europe.”