Online Grocery App Jokr Joins the Unicorn Clan

Jokr, an online grocery sales startup, just took in US$260 million in Series B funding, just five months after raising US$170 million in a Series A led by GGV Capital, Balderton Capital and Tiger Global Management. This new round made Jokr one of the fastest startups to receive the “Unicorn” label. 

“We are a unicorn of the Americas, with a Latin American soul. Because Latin America was our first place,” Ralf Wenzel, Co-Founder and CEO, Jokr, told Forbes.

The company has been up and running for eight months, with venues and main points of operation in Mexico City (where they made their first official shipment), Guadalajara and Monterrey. It also operates in Colombia, Peru, Chile, Austria and Poland. “We mainly want to increase our footprint in the markets where we already are, increasing penetration in existing cities and those in which we are not yet, with a more competent, vertically integrated service,” said Wenzel. The company plans to expand to Puebla and Queretaro, Mexico, and Barranquilla and Bucaramanga, Colombia. Jokr also operates under the Daki name in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Jokr meteoric rise was almost accidental, Wenzel told TechCrunch. “We were not planning to raise so soon. We had sufficient capital after raising the substantial round in July. Since then, we built out in so many different countries and began getting much interest in what we were doing. Our existing investors wanted to double down on our phenomenal and healthy growth, as well as new investors. We are now well-capitalized and happy about it.”

After this new round of investment, Jokr plans to deliver to even more neighborhoods and cities in their core Latin America and US markets, as mentioned in its official press release. 

Jokr has a global team of 550 people, not including delivery men or pickers in stores. According to statements made by the GGV Capital Managing Partner and Jokr Board Member Hans Tung, “The company is distinguished by its ability to deliver a great consumer experience and rapid expansion simultaneously.” Jokr is growing an average of 15 percent each week and customer retention remains high as over 50 percent of its new customers come to them organically.