Food Rocket Snags $25M for Grocery Delivery Expansion

Food Rocket, the San Francisco company that promises grocery delivery in the Bay Area within 15 minutes, has secured $25 million in Series A funding that it will use to expand the service in Chicago and other U.S. cities, reinforce its artificial intelligence software and add to its team.

Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT) led Food Rocket’s funding effort, investing through its Circle K Venture Fund, which was established to invest in companies developing transformative solutions that are shaping the future of convenience, according to a Tech Funding News report Tuesday (April 26).

ACT has more than 14,000 Circle K and Couche-Tard convenience stores in 26 countries and territories, including more than 7,000 in the U.S.

“By bringing the retail expertise of our investors, we will be able to significantly improve the unit economics by reducing the purchase costs of goods and marketing costs,” said Vitaly Alexandrov, CEO and founder of Food Rocket, in the report. “In the grocery delivery market, this is a unique opportunity to stand out from competitors.

“Moreover, our AI-based algorithms analyze the users’ purchases to increase the retention of each customer. We continue to build our team internationally by recruiting people from giant companies such as Gopuff and DoorDash,” he said.

Food Rocket uses AI-enabled technologies to manage warehouse stocks, forecast demand and optimize delivery time by predicting the closest store with the fastest delivery time at the lowest cost. In California, 60% of Food Rocket customers order a second time for a $30 average order value.

The company is looking to create 2,000 new jobs in markets across the country, the report said.

Related: This Week in FinTech Ukraine: Amazon Launches Employment Support Program for Refugees

In March, Food Rocket announced its customers can help Ukrainians by donating directly to a meals charity with every market purchase. The FoodTech startup has joined with World Central Kitchen (WCK) in making hot meals available in Ukraine cities and at border crossings with Poland, Romania, Hungary and Moldova.