Venture

Last Week In Venture: Just A Couple Of Rounds In The Grocery Space

Hello and welcome back to Last Week In Venture, the weekly roundup of deals which may have flown under your radar.

Let’s take a look at a few of the deals from the week that was in venture-land.

Grocery Store Tech Is Having A Moment

For a lot of us, here’s the evolution of how folks in our family got their food. Our great grandparents farmed. Our grandparents went to the weekly markets. Our parents went to supermarkets. And us youngs, burdened with the creeping fear of drowning in student debt and looming financial and environmental crises which threaten to shatter the little we’ve been able to hold dear, work too much to cook and, thus, fuel the skyrocketing valuations of food delivery services.

But all’s not so bleak for the businesses operating in the grocery space. This week, we spotted two ventures which raised fresh funding for their food businesses and we wanted to share them here.

Let’s start first with Swiftly, a Seattle-based venture aiming to build the “operating system for supermarkets.” The company helps grocery stores spin up loyalty programs, perks like fast-lane checkouts, and targeted promotions for consumers. This week, the company raised $15.6 million in seed financing to help compete against the likes of Amazon, which continues to roll out its checkout-free Amazon Go convenience stores.

Following on, there’s shopping cart startup Caper, which raised $10 million in its Series A, led this week by Lux Capital. The company, based in New York, is developing a smart cart which grocery shoppers can use to scan-in and pay for their groceries. It’s self check-out, without the check-out.

And with that we’re done for the week. See you soon!

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