Instamart, a Moscow-based startup that organizes food deliveries from offline retail outlets, has just raised 100 million rubles (approximately $1.6 million at the current exchange rate) from Mail.Ru Group and Ilya Yakubson, a figure of the Russian grocery retail industry.
Inspired by the success of Californian unicorn Instacart, the Russian startup launched in 2013. Instamart now serves Moscow customers through a partnership with Metro. Orders are delivered within at least 3 hours inside the city or next day in suburban areas.
In January, Instamart raised $500,000 from several Russian business angels, including Qiwi co-founder Sergei Solonin.
The startup has estimated the Russian food delivery market at some 20 billion rubles ($320 million) in 2015, and expects it to jump to 30-35 billion rubles ($500 million) by 2018.
Online orders account for just 0.2% of Russia’s food retail market, compared with more than 5% in the UK and 3% in the US, according to Instamart managing director Pavel Glukhov.
Recently Mail.ru Group acquired Delivery Club, the number one food delivery company in Russia previously owned by Rocket Internet’s Foodpanda, for $100 million.
Sources: Firrma.ru, Kommersant, Crunchbase
