Buymie raises additional €5.8m

Buymie, Ireland’s leading same-day grocery delivery company announces the injection of an extra €5.8 million in new investments into its business, to take its total capital raised this year to over €8 million.

This latest investment round was led by a new investor, Wheatsheaf Group, the food and agriculture investment arm of the Grosvenor Estate. Follow-on investments were also committed from existing backers including Act Venture Capital, Sure Valley Ventures, Haatch Ventures, and HBAN. Other notable investors include Keith Weed, former Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for Unilever, and Scott Weavers Wright, former Managing Director of Morrisons.com.

Devan Hughes, CEO & Co-Founder of Buymie added: “This funding round will help Buymie achieve our goal of becoming the leading same-day grocery delivery provider across the UK and Ireland. More and more customers are frustrated by the long waiting times offered by conventional grocery delivery services and delighted with our solution that can deliver groceries in as little as one hour. The success of our Lidl partnership has demonstrated just how much appetite there is for our service, and how important seamless delivery is to retailers’ reputations. They have been a fantastic partner to Buymie.” 

Buymie is the leading player in Ireland’s rapidly-growing same-day grocery delivery market. Over the last 18 months the business has expanded to meet the increasing demand for grocery home delivery, a trend which has accelerated dramatically during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Buymie works closely with retail partners including Lidl and The Co-op by providing a unique same-day ‘concierge’ delivery service to their customers. Buymie’s flagship partnership with Lidl has enabled value-conscious consumers in Ireland to access same-day grocery delivery, with Lidl Ireland seeing active online customers growing by as much as 39% month-on-month. Buymie enables its partners to compete with companies like Amazon, who have significant ambitions to lead in same-day grocery delivery.

In May, Buymie launched in the UK, marking the startup’s first expansion outside Ireland. The service is initially available in the Bristol metropolitan area in partnership with The Co-op and other UK retailers. The funds recently raised will enable Buymie to continue rapid market expansion both in Ireland and in the UK, with 15 other UK cities currently being considered.

As well as driving the national and international expansion, the new funds will allow the company to focus on its mission of reducing the environmental impact of grocery shopping. Initiatives include limiting the use of secondary plastic packaging, reducing private car journeys, as well as designing incentive programmes to help facilitate a switch to electric vehicles.

Katrin Burt, Managing Director at Wheatsheaf added: “We are excited by the potential for Buymie to lead in same-day grocery delivery across the UK and Ireland with its nimble and scalable approach. The investment aligns with Wheatsheaf’s goals to empower consumers with high quality and sustainable food choices and builds on our growing portfolio throughout the food and agriculture supply chain.”

Keith Weed (former Unilever Chief Marketing Officer who also had responsibility for Unilever‘s innovative sustainability plan globally) added: ” Consumers in the UK and Ireland want same-day delivery, great value and sustainability. Buymie is unique in offering all three, which makes it a very compelling consumer proposition, and a great partner for retailers looking to take advantage of the rapidly growing online shopping opportunity and also defend themselves against the advancing competitive threat of a certain e-commerce juggernaut… ”

Scott Weavers Wright (former CEO of Morrisons.com) added: “Consumers want same-day grocery delivery, and traditional chilled van-based grocery eCommerce solutions aren’t able to do same-day; that is why I backed Buymie which has unique capabilities in grocery eCommerce.”

Customers who are interested in getting their groceries delivered through Buymie can download the Buymie app for either iOS or Android devices.  With a simple pay as you go delivery fee model on orders, Buymie also recently announced the launch of its new membership offering called Buymie Plus, which provides users UNLIMITED free deliveries on all orders of €40 and above, for just €11.99 per month or €99 per year.