15-Minute Grocery Delivery Firm Jokr Launches In 3 More NYC Boroughs

Jokr, the 15-minute grocery delivery firm that launched in June in three New York City boroughs, is expanding to three additional locations.

The company on Tuesday announced it will begin servicing the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, and the financial district. Jokr previously served only Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens residents. The firm is adding new hub locations in the added boroughs, expanding its total addressable market opportunity by 80% in the region.

Currently, Jokr offers over 1,500 items to New York residents, including local favorites such as Levain cookies and Van Leeuwen ice cream.

Jokr operates over 100 hubs worldwide in nine countries with plans to add more locations before the end of 2021, it said. Order volume has been doubling roughly every month, it added.

Founded by German entrepreneur Ralf Wenzel, Jokr utilizes local warehouse facilities to offer a full selection of products with a 15-minute delivery promise on items ordered through its app. Wenzel is known for working with the European delivery giant Delivery Hero. He has also worked for Softbank, which is one of the investors in Jokr along with HV Capital and Tiger Global.

Related:

Read: 3 months after launch, grocery platform JOKR raises $170M

Read: 15-minute grocery delivery is real – and in New York, it's free

The Jokr network is designed to bring goods into a larger warehouse before shuttling those items to local neighborhood locations with sizes in the 2,500- to 3,000-square-foot ranges. This allows the company to hold down rental costs and allows for a quicker flow of products. Each local fulfillment center will be replenished multiple times a day as needed.

Unlike a traditional grocery store that may stock multiple brands of a given product, Jokr will offer "a mix of national items you want as well as some of the local flair and local items that get you quite excited," Zach Dennett, who leads Jokr's U.S. efforts, previously told Modern Shipper. Aldi has done this successfully in the grocery space, offering a full range of products but at lower prices in smaller-footprint retail locations. Jokr is taking that concept a step further by adding final-mile delivery as well. Jokr locations will not serve as retail locations, though, offering only delivery.

Dennett told Modern Shipper the key to Jokr's success is its small warehouse facilities, select quantities of items, and a team of employee delivery riders that will utilize electric bikes.  There are no order minimums or delivery fees, and unlike most grocery delivery firms, all its riders and pickers are full-time workers.

In July, Jokr raised $170 million in a Series A investment round led by GGV Capital, Balderton Capital, and Tiger Global Management. The round was joined by Activant Capital, Greycroft, Fabrice Grinda's FJ Labs, as well as Latin America's tech-specialized VC firms Kaszek and Monashees. HV Capital, which was one of the company's seed round investors, also contributed to the Series A.

Click for more Modern Shipper articles by Brian Straight.

You may also like:

Social Auto Transport raises $1.5M in seed funding to expand gig economy auto-moving business

Bringg's collaboration with Uber opens new doors for e-commerce

Walmart to begin drone delivery pilot this summer

Image by ElasticComputeFarm from Pixabay