Rapid grocer Zapp has raised $200m in a funding round featuring Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton.
The cash injection will be used to further improve the brand’s customer experience and technology, in both existing and new markets, as well as “to continue building the ‘need it now’ supply chain” the company said.
Zapp launched in late 2020 with a single dark store – what the company calls a Zappstore – in West London. It now has dozens of micro-fulfilment centres in the capital, as well as in Manchester and Amsterdam.
Late last year, Zapp opened a 25,000 sq ft distribution centre in London to reduce out-of-stock events and allow intra-day replenishment for its London Zappstores.
“We’re on a long-term journey to build a technology-enabled supply chain that can deliver thousands of products to hundreds of millions of customers around the world faster and more sustainably than any other supply chain can today,” said Zapp co-founder Joe Falter. “With this new capital we will focus on achieving profitability in our existing markets, as well as bringing Zapp to new customers globally.”
The new funding takes the total raised by Zapp to $300m since it was founded in summer 2020.
“We will continue to invest in improving our product and customer experience as we scale,” said Falter. “While it’s still early days, we are humbled to be the largest UK retailer of some of the most iconic fmcg brands in 2021 and increasingly a platform for new product discovery.”
Leading the funding round were investors Lightspeed, 468 Capital and BroadLight Capital, joining Atomico, Burda and Vorwerk Ventures. Lewis Hamilton’s investment was not disclosed.
“Convenience retail is one of the last segments of retail to move fully online, but is really having its moment post-lockdown,” said Rytis Vitkauskas, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.
“As people return to their busy lives, rapid delivery allows them to ‘live in the moment’ and Zapp has been built from the ground up to harness this consumer behaviour and is seeing exceptional customer loyalty as a result.”
Zapp’s founders are Joe Falter, who was part of the founding team at Nigerian online giant Jumia, where he led the on-demand services business through to the group’s IPO, and Navid Hadzaad, a former product leader at Amazon’s Seattle HQ.
The pair have grown a team of “scale-up and exit experience” from the likes of Amazon, Deliveroo, Tesco, Stuart and Just Eat, but are not looking to sell up, according to the company.
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