Daki, a Sao Paulo delivery startup, emerged exactly two years ago with a proposal to facilitate express deliveries without much friction with traditional market purchases. On its anniversary, the company now has a new reason to celebrate. On the table, in addition to the congratulatory cake, there is a check for $50 million, the result of the Series C financing closed on Friday the third.
The round is led by long-time investors in the company, including GGV Funds, TriplePoint Capital, G-Squared and Tiger Global; the latter two also participated in the Serie B fundraiser, in December 2021, which turned Daki into a unicorn.
The tour also marks the entry of France’s Pernod Ricard, a wine distributor and the world’s second-largest spirits group, in the industry’s first foray among the company’s shareholders.
Without rounding down, the term that defines the devaluation of startups in subsequent investment rounds based on a new market valuation, Ducky expanded his multiples with Series C by $1.3 billion.
What is Daki doing?
Founded in January 2021 by Alex Bretzner, Rafael Vasto, and Rodrigo Maroja, Daki is a digital marketplace that offers perishable groceries, products, and beverages, as well as items for the home, personal care, and even pet supplies. In a few minutes.
The proposal is to standardize everything in a single logistics chain, without intermediaries, thus allowing faster deliveries than usual. The race against time to serve consumers eager for immediate delivery (Daki promises to deliver products to the door in 15 minutes) has vertical integration as its starting point.
At Daki, the entire process, from procurement of goods to final delivery, does not require outsourcing. It all starts with direct contact with the industry and even its delivery points, known there as dark stores, small physical operations that act exclusively as storage and distribution centers, with a limited range of a few kilometers.
Today, Daki ships to São Paulo, Santos, Campinas, ABC Paulista, Osasco, Guarulhos, Rio de Janeiro, Niterói and Belo Horizonte. Outside of Brazil, it is found in Mexico, Peru and Colombia, where it operates under the brand of parent company JOKR.
Daki’s wave of growth
The new contribution shows that Daki has managed to overcome several challenges that startups have faced in recent months. Without giving exact numbers, the company claims to have increased revenue five times in the past year and tripled the customer base, compared to 2021 results.
The positive indicators were enough to demonstrate the sustainability of the business and attract a wave of investors who bet on the vertical business model and also on the founding team of the startup, assesses Rafael Vasto, CEO of Daki. “I can say that this new contribution is a mix of the past and the future, it embodies the satisfaction with our solid results and the confidence of investors that we are capable of leading the technological revolution that retail is about to face. ” he says.
With constant devaluations and rarer world tours, Series C gives new impetus to Daki’s strategy of focusing on the Latin American market, especially Brazil.
The country-of-origin focus is based on a promising “repeat retention” ratio, which is a typical combination for supermarket chains. Brazil is a sea of multi-million dollar opportunities. Despite being one of the most relevant retail categories, supermarkets have very little Internet penetration,” says Vasto. “We see the opportunity to reinvent the sector with agility, practicality, variety, and speed.”
On the list of advantages that Daki pompously presented to investors is the merit of being the startup that rose to unicorn status in Brazil the fastest: it only took 10 months after incorporation.
In addition, the high-speed delivery company also has a positive contribution margin, which is a factor that indicates the company’s ability to pay itself based on the price charged for the products. This is an indicator that has the potential to keep many entrepreneurs up at night. “This is no longer true for a certain number of stores, but for all Daki operations globally, on order and in dark stores,” says the CEO.
In search of balance
According to Vastu, the purpose of the contribution is “to cover the investments needed for Daki to break even in 2024.” In practical terms, this means that the resources must serve, in an integrated way, to satisfy the company’s desire to grow with its feet on the ground, to reach the stage that most new startups want and with intense burnout. cash to expand in the former. . Years. years of life
Concentrating efforts on the markets in which it already operates in Brazil is part of the company’s ambition to balance costs and revenues. “The message is that we want to grow in Brazil for convenience, without major geographic expansion plans. We will double revenue in 2023 and that will be just the beginning,” he says.
On the technological side, the idea is to offer a new set of customizations and recommendations capable of improving the experience of application users.