Instamart, a Moscow-based startup that organizes food deliveries from offline retail outlets, raised 500 million rubles (approximately $7.6 million at the current exchange rate).
As reported by VC.RU, the deal, which took place last month, valued the company at 1.8 billion rubles (around $27.5 million). The money was brought in by Mail.Ru Group, Sberbank top executive Lev Khasis and Transcontinental Media Company President Alexander Mitroshenkov.
Mail.Ru Group and Khasis had already invested in the company in December 2016 and February 2018, respectively.
The other previous investors in Instamart are Ilya Yakubson, a figure of the Russian grocery retail industry; Albert Sagiryan, a former Sberbank top executive; Sergey Solonin, one of Qiwi’s co-founders; and Gazprom Media Partners, an investment vehicle created by Gazprom Media.
Business daily Vedomosti reports that Mail.Ru Group, following its investments in 2016 and 2019, now owns “less than 20%” of the company.
“Investing in foodtech companies is part of our strategy” said Alexey Milevskiy, director of Mail.Ru Group’s M&A department in an exchange with VC.RU, underlining the “important synergy potential” of such companies with the group’s other services.
Serving 50,000 fresh food aficionados across Russia
Inspired by the success of Californian unicorn Instacart, the Russian startup launched in 2013. Instamart now serves Moscow customers through partnerships with Auchan, Lenta, Metro Cash & Carry and VkusVill.
The company claims “more than 50,000 active users” in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod. The service is to be launched in such other cities as Rostov-upon-Don, Ufa and Krasnodar.
Instamart says it generated 1 billion rubles ($16 million) in turnover or 200 million rubles ($3.2 million) in revenues last year. Its average order value amounts to 5,000 rubles (around $15) with nearly 25,000 orders processed per month.
