Pieter Pot, the fully circular e-grocer launched in 2019 in Rotterdam, has just received a €9 million investment boost led by ETF Partners.
With the surge of plastic use continuing across the world, and the associated increasing emissions from its production and pollution through its waste, we are at a critical time where we need to make serious efforts to reduce plastic consumption.
To date, most of the focus around plastic use has been on recycling it to reduce its impact. However, it’s calculated that approximately 60% of plastic still ends up in either landfill or the natural environment – clearly recycling isn’t having the impact that it should.
At the same time, e-commerce has been disrupting the grocery sector, an area traditionally reliant on significant volumes of single-use packaging. On a mission to reduce plastic consumption, Rotterdam’s Pieter Pot is bringing zero waste shopping online, with maximum sustainability at maximum convenience.
The eco-conscious startup offers a next-day grocery delivery service, where the groceries arrive in fully reusable jars. With its innovative process, the company collects empties and manages the cleaning and refilling of its packaging. In doing so, Pieter Pot allows consumers to reduce their plastic consumption without having to change the way they buy.
Since launching in 2019, more than 700,000 Pieter Pot jars have been introduced into circulation, helping to reduce the need for more than 1.35 million single-use plastic packages to date. In 2022, the company has a target to contribute to eliminating one million packages per month.
Jouri Schoemaker, Founder and CEO at Pieter Pot, said “Plastic packaging is a by-product. Consumers are interested in what’s in the box, not the box itself. By moving packaging to reusables, we’re able to radically alter consumption patterns without demanding people to dramatically change their behaviour. We’ve now proven this could be done at scale and, with the new investment, we are doubling down on growth and our customers’ convenience.”
Pieter Pot has been blitz-scaling since its inception, growing more than 10x year on year. The fresh funding for the innovative grocer, led by EFT Ventures, with additional support from existing investors, SHIFT Invest, The Future Food Fund and IQCapital (InnovationQuarter), will enable them to expand into new geographies.
The company, described as being at the epicentre of growing sustainability and tech trends, will continue to invest in its unique technology and infrastructure enabling a fully circular e-grocery experience, that benefits both the environment and consumers.
