Mexican grocery delivery startup Justo has just closed a $152 million Series B funding round led by General Atlantic. New and existing investors such as Tarsadia Capital, Citius, Arago Capital, Foundation Capital, and Quiet Capital also participated in the round.
Currently operating in Mexico, Peru, and Brazil, where Justo debuted last September with a $40 million investment, the startup will allocate the new funding to geographic expansion in the markets where it already operates and to other Latin American countries, in addition to investments in technology to optimize inventory management processes, product picking and delivery logistics.
In this expansion plan, Brazil plays a key role: in just five months in São Paulo city, operations in the country already represent 25% of Justo’s total global revenue. The startup‘s next target cities are Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, and Curitiba.
Founded in 2019 by Ricardo Weder, Justo is an online grocery platform with no physical store. Unlike apps like Cornershop and Rappi, which offer products sold in physical stores, Justo keeps its own inventory of goods, ranging from fresh food to cleaning items, and delivers products directly from its warehouses to customers.
The company uses artificial intelligence to predict demand and reduce waste levels at each of its small-scale warehouses (micro-fulfillment), and in-house developed software to manage, sort products, and deliver customer orders. Data analysis is used in making decisions about inventory, expansion, and daily operations.
Launched before the pandemic, Justo has taken advantage of the growth of the online supermarket sector and in the past year has reported five times revenue growth. In the second half of 2021, Justo made two important moves to expand the company: it arrived in Brazil and acquired Freshmart, a leading Peruvian online supermarket. As of 2019, the startup has already handled more than $250 million.
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“Latin America continues to develop quickly as an emerging and attractive digital economy. We believe Justo is taking advantage of this transition and providing Latin American consumers with a new technology alternative that better meets their needs,” said Luis Cervantes, General Atlantic’s general director in Mexico.
“We see this latest investment in expansion as proof of our investors’ confidence in Justo, in our business model, in our team, and in the excellent opportunity, we are pursuing. We are committed to the idea of transforming the online supermarket industry in Latin America,” said Weder, CEO of Justo.
