The Portuguese startup Bairro, whose mission is to revolutionize the experience of buying supermarket products, ensuring their quality and speed of delivery, just raised €1.2 million in an investment round led by a group of international private investors with extensive experience in the retail and delivery sectors. The list of investors include Leonid Dovladbegyan, general director of online hypermarket Vprok.ru (X5 Retail Group), Dmitry Shklyar, lead investor and business angel, Alex Vasiliev, former director of JD.com and Cainiao, and Andrey Tsytsenko, former director of Delivery Club and Pandao.
With this capital increase, Bairro intends to continue to optimize the service, expand its area of operation in Portugal, first in Lisbon and then take the brand to the city of Oporto by the end of the year and, as soon as the operation is consolidated in both cities, start to carry out deliveries fast throughout the country.
Founded by 25 years old Artem Kokhan and Milana Dovzhenko, Bairro developed a mobile application that allows fast delivery of supermarket products, food and essential goods in the heart of the Portuguese capital, available between 10am to 12pm, ensuring that the user experience is always of high quality, regardless of the type of product desired or delivery time.
Milana Dovzhenko, founding partner of Bairro, stated: “It is indisputable that consumption habits are changing, mainly driven by the pandemic context. Shopping from home, more conveniently and quickly, is increasingly a reality for consumers and we considered that there was room in the market to create a service that would solve the problem of last-minute supermarket purchases, in an efficient way and without high costs. Bairro wants to be hand in hand with the Portuguese people at all times of their day, always guaranteeing the highest quality of products and just-in-time delivery, from that special ingredient that’s missing for the dinner for two or the popcorn for that movie session with the family. Additionally, this service allows for less food waste, as there are fewer impulse purchases or products that end up never being used within their validity period.”
Currently, the startup already has direct contracts with the most prominent suppliers, including PepsiCO, Unilever, Nestlé, among others, and in the next two years it plans to expand the range of food and consumer goods, as well as focus on pharmaceutical products.
“The impressive traction of the project, the current volume of the Portuguese food market, which represents an estimated value of 24 billion euros and the low competition in the the fast delivery segment in the region, were factors that led to the decision to invest in Bairro”, commented business angel Dmitry Shklyar.
The startup was launched in December 2020 with an initial investment of €100K for the development of the mobile application and the opening of the first dark store, a supermarket warehouse closed to the customer in the city center. During the first three months, the startup was developing the MVP, Minimum Viable Product, and the first warehouse opened its doors at the end of March 2021. The business plan includes the expansion of Bairro to markets such as Spain and other neighboring countries.
