Zwolle-based startup SuperBuddy has raised 1 million euro from a group of investors, among which the regional development cooperation Oost NL. That brings the total amount of funding by the startup to a little over 1.6 million euro.
Founded in 2015 by Tim van den Heuvel SuperBuddy is currently active in Zwolle, Utrecht and Rotterdam. The service can be compared with the San Francisco based Instacart that has since its founding in 2012 amassed close to 700 million in funding. Similar services active in adjacent markets are UberEats, Foodoora, HelloFresch and Picnic. Pinic is founded by successful serial entrepreneurs and backed with 100 million by the country’s richest. SuperBuddy promises to deliver groceries in 2 hours (Instacart uses a maximum of 1 hour). The ‘buddy’s’ are particularly students, pensionado’s and people in between jobs.
Superbuddy aims to use the capital raised to expand to 60 cities in the coming years.
In Rotterdam, the second largest city of the Netherlands the company has a pilot contract with Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain of the country. The results of the pilot are that promising that the pilot period is extended, says SuperBuddy’s CEO Laurens Geffen in an interview with the Dutch publication ‘De Telegraaf.’
Operating in a crowded and dynamic market with strong players like Picnic it remains to be seen how the cards will play out for startups like Superbuddy. A plus to the offering of SupperBuddy is that it enables traditional players like Albert Heijn and Jumbo and smaller supers like Eko Plaza (a organic food supermarket chain and client of SuperBuddy) to compete with the likes of Picnic.
We’ve reached out to SuperBuddy for more information and will update the article if need be.
Photo by Alexandr Podvalny on Unsplash