As most sectors that do not provide essential services take a hit, a few have reaped the fruits of the convenience of e-commerce and delivery during rather challenging times. One such market is the e-grocery market in the GCC, where many startups & supermarket chains alike have witnessed 100% MoM growth over the past few weeks. Highlighting one of our portfolio companies, Bulkwhiz, an e-grocery startup based in UAE that focuses on bulk purchase value, ideal for imposed curfews and restrictions (and panic buyers) during the crisis.

Bulkwhiz has recently seen a whopping 5x growth in GMV in March 2020 vs 2019. March alone was 3x January. The surge has caught all online grocery players, big and small, globally, by surprise. Amazon has stopped accepting orders for none-essentials. Ocado has shut down and all the regional players are seeing delivery delays of 10+ days. Everyone is racing to ramp up capacity. While delivery delays for other players are 10+ days due to inadequate logistical processes and supply chain inefficiency, Bulkwhiz has managed to maintain delivery time at 2-3 days consistently.

On the topic, Bulkwhiz founder and serial entrepreneur Amirah Rashad said, “We have moved quickly to ramp up capacity. We moved this week to a new facility with 3x the capacity. We are ramping up hiring and outsourcing where appropriate to meet the demand. We believe that online grocery is now becoming mainstream as some of the behaviors adopted during this challenging time will continue in the long term.”

Leave a comment