Buymie, an Irish start-up that offers home deliveries on behalf of Lidl, has raised €500,000 in investment to bring to just over €1 million the amount the company has raised so far this year.
Newly filed documents indicate the company has raised €425,000 via the angel investor network HBAN, a joint initiative of Intertrade Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. EI has also separately invested €100,000 in the start-up.
Other backers of Buymie include consumer goods giant Unilever, Dragon's Den star Eamonn Quinn and Scott Weavers-Wright, who founded Kiddicare. com and then went on to run Morrisons online channel after the supermarket acquired his company for £70 million.
Earlier this year, Buymie, which was established by Devan Hughes and Artavazd Sokhikyan in February 2016, raised €520,000 in a funding round led by Mr Weavers-Wright's Haatch Ventures. A number of Connaught rugby players, including Jarrad Butler, Robin Copeland, Dave Heffernan, David Horwitz and Craig Ronaldson, also participated in that particular funding round.
The company also raised more than €420,000 in a crowdfunding campaign in late 2017.
UK rollout
Buymie, which is expected to begin a UK rollout later this year, has developed an on-demand grocery delivery platform that promises a faster turnaround of deliveries than more traditional services. Users are able to order goods via the company’s mobile app and have them delivered in as little as an hour.
Mr Hughes, who was recently nominated for Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition said the company had been experiencing significant growth in the past 12 months.
“Consumer demand for ‘on-demand’ groceries has sky rocketed, with year-on-year growth of 1,211 per cent in this channel versus 7.5 per cent growth in the traditional next-day delivery market. To be frank, Buymie has opened an entirely new channel for the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, which is proving to be an incredible growth opportunity for our retail and brand partners,” he said.
“With Buymie recently becoming one of the top 10 food apps in Ireland, we’ve accepted new investment from a number of strategic investors to support expansion and investment into the platform’s technology, ensuring we continue to scale with the customer need and demand, and to help our retail partners win in this exciting new channel,” he added.
