Online Wine Marketplace Vivino Raises $155 Million In Venture Funding

Vivino, which offers a wine app and online marketplace, is drinking in the news that it has raised $155 million in new funding.

The Series D funding round reportedly was was led by investment firm Kinnevik and Sprints Capital, with participation from GP BullHound and Creandum.

The Spoon said this brings Vivino’s total funding to $221 million. The additional funds will go for expansion and to build up the company’s technology by adding more artificial intelligence (AI). The goal is to improve on the wine recommendations Vivino provides to customers.

Vivino will focus its expansion efforts on markets in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Portugal and Japan, The Spoon said. Vivino has offices in San Francisco, Ireland, Copenhagen, Ukraine and India.

At this point, customers can use the mobile app or online marketplace to see reviews and ratings of different wines and view personal recommendations based on their preferences. The wine is shipped to customers’ homes.

Customers can shop for wine based on grape or region — and get wine pairing recommendations for a variety of foods.

Online alcohol sales have gone up dramatically during the pandemic. Such eCommerce was already climbing even before.

On Tuesday (Feb. 2), Uber Technologies announced it will acquire online alcohol marketplace Drizly for about $1.1 billion in stock and capital.

Wine.com — which bills itself as the nation’s leading online wine retailer – earned $165 million in revenues and saw 25 percent growth for fiscal 2020, ending March 31. The $33 million revenue increase over fiscal 2019 was the biggest in the company’s 15-year history.

Subsequently, April 2020 revenues exceeded $40 million, a 350 percent increase over April 2019.

Rich Bergsund, Wine.com CEO, said at the time that the company had hired more than 500 people for its operations, customer service and live chat recommendations teams.

The company had been focusing on its subscription model. Revenue from its StewardShip club members, the company’s most loyal and profitable customer segment, has climbed markedly.