New startup trends: Companies tapping into quick commerce after seeing success of e-grocery startups

Companies are striving to adopt the new startup trends, namely the quick commerce and e-grocery concepts, as their business model. Astro,which just raised Rp387 billion in Series A funding, is considered as one of the newly-founded quick commerce startups in Indonesia. 

Earlier this year, Bukalapak and Transmart formed a joint venture to launch an e-commerce (most probably quick commerce) Kingkong which focuses on the fresh food and wholesale segment. Another startup called Bananas also decided to tap into this segment. Bananas announced last week that it just secured an initial funding of $1 million. The funding round was led by East Ventures, with participation from SMDV, ARISE, MDI Ventures and several angel investors.

Last year, Dropeazy announced that it has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding. The proceeds will be used to expand its micro fulfilment centre (cloud store) to various points throughout Greater Jakarta. Grocery marketplace HappyFresh recently launched a quick commerce service through HappyFresh Supermarket which offers 30-minute delivery.

E-grocery startups have also started to proliferate in Indonesia prior to the recent emergence of quick commerce. E-groceries have experienced quite a rapid growth since 2020 due to the pandemic as people are encouraged to stay at home to prevent the spread of the virus.

With such potentials, agritech startups such as Sayurbox and Tanihub decided to offer similar services, while Gojek (along with Tokopedia) and Shopee decided to tap into this service by releasing GoMart (now TokopediaNow) and ShopeeSegar. 

Seroyamart, an e-grocery startup that was founded in 2013, said that it recorded a 30%-40% growth during the pandemic. Although its operational side was negatively affected by the pandemic as some of the employees contracted the virus, the pandemic has helped educate consumers about online shopping, said Seroyamart CEO Sebastian Wjiaya last September. 

“It has also greatly changed the mindset of consumers from always looking for discounts and free shipping to consumers who prioritise convenience and safety in shopping,” he added.