Start of food delivery Kalii carves out a piece of Latin America $1 trillion grocery and delivery service market with its approach to reducing inefficiencies in the food supply chain so it can get products and thousands of other groceries to customers’ doorsteps in under two hours.
Calii app
To continue that mission, the company on Friday announced a $22.5 million Series A funding co-led by Dalus Capital and JAM Fund, which includes backers such as Forerunner Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, Y Combinator and Base10 Partners participate. To date, it has raised nearly $35 million.
David Eduardo Arrambide Montemayor and Maurizio Caló Caligaris, both Stanford-trained engineers, launched Calii, a mobile grocery app that connects with manufacturers and brands to automate the supply chain end-to-end for more than 5,000 products including vegetables, meat, seafood and prepared products through a network of micro-fulfillment centers.
This not only offers customers food savings, but also reduces environmental waste by up to three times, CEO Arrambide Montemayor told TechCrunch via email.
“By reducing middlemen and reducing inefficiencies, we generate more profit for manufacturers and pass greater savings on to our users,” he added. “Our products are available at the same or lower prices than traditional supermarkets like Walmart.”
Calii operates in what is now a fairly crowded space with the goal of boosting Latin America’s current online grocery sales of less than 5% in the retail market. Arrambide Montemayor views the company’s competitors as falling into three categories: Marketplaces, such as corner store, quick trade, like Jokr and Rappi Turbo, and full food, like just and I buy it, with the last four companies all attracting venture capital in the past year.
What sets Calii apart from these players is pricing, speed, and fewer products.
“Our technology-driven approach of automated micro-fulfillment centers, digitized picking and packaging, machine learning and big data algorithms for SKU selection and demand forecasting, and focus on ultra-fresh produce and groceries make us the top-rated grocery app. replaces the weekly trip to the supermarket,” he added.
When Arrambide Montemayor and Caló Caligaris founded the company in March 2019, the team spent the first 24 months in two markets perfecting the model, user experience and device economics.
In the last 12 months, Calii’s revenue has grown more than three times. In Monterrey, its first market, the company ships over 2,000 orders per day and the average order value is over $40. During the same period, the company increased its workforce by 250% to over 250 employees and operators.
The financing ushered in the company into a new phase of lightning-fast expansion and growth, said Arrambide Montemayor. It is expanding its presence in Mexico and the rest of Latin America and plans to be in more than 14 cities and multiple countries over the next six months.
It also launches new complementary products, services and categories including home appliances and electronics; Market with over 40,000 grocery items with same or next day delivery; and buy now, pay later by offering Calii Pay. The funding will also allow the company to triple its headcount on its way to more than 10,000 daily orders.
“To truly crack the $1 trillion grocery market in LatAm, we understand that we cannot be a premium service that charges 20% more than a supermarket; So we’re building the food supply chain from the ground up and automating it, bringing technology and data to every layer to deliver ultra-freshness with savings,” added Arrambide Montemayor.
