Italian app that connects restaurant owners and suppliers eyes European expansion after funding round

15-Aug-2022 - Last updated on 15-Aug-2022 at 15:29 GMT

Image: Getty/Hispanolistic

The B2B food delivery platform Deliveristo has raised €7 million in fresh funding.

The funds will be used to support Deliveristo’s consolidation in the Italian market, expansion in Europe and launch of new services, from data driven marketing to payments services aimed at customers and suppliers.

Milan-based Deliveristo puts suppliers in direct contact with hotel, restaurant and café owners via an app. Restaurateurs can register on the app for free and then order online directly ‘from the best Italian producers’. It launched in 2019 and its customer base is presently focused in cities, including Milan, Turin, Rome, Bologna and Florence, with suppliers located all over Italy. The Deliveristo app currently lists over 60,000 items from over 350 Italian suppliers selling their products to over 1,300 subscribers to the platform, including chefs, restaurants, shops and new delivery only catering channels such as dark, ghost or cloud kitchen.

For buyers, Deliveristo claims it has the advantage of centralizing purchases and billing, while allowing them to shop around from a single interface. For suppliers, it can increase visibility and turnover. The company further boasts a unique and extremely lean business model in Europe which is totally software-based. It uses dropshipping logistics (i.e. the products are shipped directly from the supplier to the store or to the restaurateur) and a single purchasing and billing centre for the hotel, restaurant and café customer. Deliveristo estimates food spending in this category represents about 30% of the total market, exceeding an estimated value of €24 billion in Italy and €155 billion in Europe in 2019.

“The more we continue our journey, the more we realize how much this sector needs digitization and innovation,” said Ivan Aimo, CEO & Co-Founder of Deliveristo. “The goal of this round is to offer more and more services to suppliers and restaurateurs, to validate the model in other countries and to make the company ready for another significant round of expansion, on which we will start working immediately.”

B2B has great potential but lacks digitisation

The latest funding round was led by Italian venture capital and private equity firm Vertis. It described the food tech sector as one of the most dynamic in the web economy landscape. It said the B2B sector potentially represents a huge opportunity for companies such as Deliveristo. “While the B2C food delivery market is in a consolidation phase, the B2B segment represents a huge opportunity in Europe and around the world,” said Alessandro Pontari, Investment Director of Vertis. “There is not a market leader yet and the supply chain is still managed in a traditional manor, relying on text messages and calls to the suppliers. Deliveristo has a unique positioning in the process of innovation and digitization of the hotel, restaurant and cafe operators, which in Italy spends more than €24 billion every year to purchase food & beverage products. Being a ‘pure software marketplace’, Deliveristo has a lean cost structure and scalable business model. Its experienced team has proven its execution capacity and has achieved excellent results. Deliveristo has also a positive impact in terms of sustainability, bringing reduction of food waste, greater transparency in the supply chain and lower CO2 emissions related to transport.”

Sara Lovato, Investment Manager of United Ventures, another Deliveristo backer, added: “The business model implemented was found to be resilient and highly scalable in one segment, the B2B in the food sector, with great potential but still not very digitized.”