Bairro is a Portuguese startup for express delivery of food, drinks, household goods, and wine in 15-20 minutes. The service was launched in April 2021 in Lisbon. Delivery is ordered via mobile app and made from warehouses, that is something new for Portugal.
Official website: https://bairro.io/
HQ: Lisbon, Portugal
Why to invest in Bairro?
The approved and scalable business model The fast growing market Management team with a deep experience in grocery retail
Financial metrics of Bairro
- Total funding: €3,7 M
- Stage: Seed
- Last round date: January 2022
- Lead investors: TMT Investments, Startup Lab, Flyer One Ventures, Insta Ventures
Bairro investment opportunity
It took less than 1 year for Bairro to launch in 6 areas of Lisbon and in Almada, and as of today 5 000 orders are processed by 150 Bairro’s employees every week. The company is going to expand to 45 warehouses in Portugal and to enter the Morocco till the end of 2022.
Food delivery market in Portugal is not as much saturated as in Germany or France, and has a great growth potential (including allowed alcohol delivery as an additional advantage). The biggest rivals of Bairro are startups like Uber Eats, Bolt Food and Glovo as well as large supermarket chains, such as Auchan and Continente. Bairro beats the first ones with operating its own warehouses (other foodtechs do not) and the second ones with a lightning-fast delivery (15-20 minutes).
Bairro plans to offer its own products with margin to increase up to 45%.
Bairro was recently ranked #1 food delivery app in the Portuguese Play Market with an average user rating of 4.7 out of 5. The company uses an aggressive marketing strategy and advertises through social networks, influencers, and TV.
Bairro also creates a comfortable working environment, which is reflected in a very low churn rate of only 3-5%.
Market overview
Online grocery sales increased by 55% in Europe and 60% in Portugal in 2020, according to research by McKinsey. The whole grocery retail market in Portugal added only 15% YoY, meaning significantly hike in online sales.
The popularity of online sales was mostly stimulated by lockdowns, but McKinsey analysts predict that buying products online will be in demand after the pandemic as well. There is significant room for growth: at the end of 2020, the share of online sales in grocery retail in Europe was only 5.3%, in Portugal — 3.5%.
In 2021 food tech startups around the world got a record amount of venture funding. Online grocers alone raised $18.4 B, meanwhile food delivery services (apps and marketplaces) — $6,8 B, according to Pitchbook.
Founders and management of Bairro
- Artem Kokhan (CEO) — before Bairro founded and then successfuly sold an e-commerce startup, which became a leader in the wedding goods trade segment in Lisbon.
- Maxim Gatsuts (COO) — the former CEO of Karusel retail chain of food hypermarkets (wich belongs to Russia’s largest food retailer X5 Group), the former development director at Macro Cash and Carry Portugal.
- Mikhail Leonov (CTO) — the former CTO of Delivery Club (Top 3 food delivery services in Russia), as well as the former Head of Development of Lamoda online store (Top 3 online fashion retailers in Russia).
- Artem Afanasiev (CMO) — the former Director of Development for Uber Eats Ukraine.
- Leonid Dovladbegyan — Managing Director of the Vprok.ru Perekrestok online hypermarket (X5 Group). Investor and chief advisor to Bairro.
Risks
- The competition with delivery startups and large retail chains may become tighter.
- The company has initial market confirmation, but is still at a very early stage. With further growth, scaling may slow down.
- With slower growth, Bairro may raise capital in future funding rounds at a lower valuation than the company plans.