Image: Kavall
As the on-demand grocery delivery market heats up, Kavall says its fresh funding will be used to expand its 10-minute service across Sweden.
Swedish grocery delivery start-up Kavall has closed a funding round worth 50m krona ($5.8m).
The round was led by two Stockholm-based funds, VNV Global and Inbox Capital, with Swedish angel investors Fredrik Jung-Abbou and Samir Bachkani also participating. Kavall said the money will be used to expand its service across more of the Swedish market.
The company currently operates in the Vasastan district of central Stockholm. It has a few thousand items on offer and charges a flat 19 krona ($2.19) delivery fee. Kavall promises to arrive at customers’ homes just 10 minutes after receiving an order.
The start-up was founded in May of this year by Robin Rendahl, who has previous experience from grocery-related start-ups Northfork and Gastrofy, and Peter Simon, a former senior product manager at Spotify who was also part of Northfork. The company employs 50 people so far.
Per Brilioth, CEO of VNV Global, said: “Kavall has a strong and complete team of founders who have impressed us from day one with their speed in going from idea to live and fully operational service. If 10pc of the grocery market would shift to online, it would mean an addressable market of over €180bn in Europe, so the potential is huge. We are proud of this partnership and we look forward to continuing backing Kavall in their ambition to become a market leader.”
The grocery delivery market in Europe is rapidly becoming crowded, with new companies being founded and existing players attracting huge investments. Czechia’s Rohlik hit unicorn status after its €100m Series C round in July and Berlin-based Gorillas did the same after its Series B round in March. Spain’s Glovo secured a €450m Series F round in April to expand in the grocery market.
But speaking to Sifted, Rendahl, who serves as Kavall’s COO, said: “Even in a small country like Sweden, the grocery market is huge. There’s room for more companies.
“The macro change happening in grocery is real. It makes sense for a local player to really focus on a market they know and dig deep there — rather than everybody betting on one, two, three players in a global market.”
He went on: “Our main focus is on opening up stores, building out the supply chain and recruiting the right team.”
While there is growth in the market, delivery services in Europe have been the target of regulatory scrutiny and criticism over how they deal with workers. In June, Glovo joined with Wolt, Delivery Hero and Bolt to form a lobby group in the hope of shaping the EU’s regulations around the gig economy.
