2020 was a huge year for investments in the e-grocer space and the financial momentum has continued well into 2021. On Thursday, Fremont-based e-grocer Weee! announced that it raised $315 million in a Series D round led by DST Global.
Weee primarily focuses on delivering food from Asian and Latinx grocery stores. The company doesn’t require a subscription to use its service and users can choose their delivery day in advance. Once an order is placed, Weee’s app provides real-time tracking updates.
On Weee, users can gain access to an array of foods that might be hard to find at big-name grocers like Albertson’s or Ralph’s. Weee users can find traditional Asian ingredients like yellow dragon fruit and purple yam in addition to traditional Latinx ingredients like fresh chorizo and queso fresco.
“Ethnic communities have been overlooked in the online and retail space. We believe the opportunity to provide these fast-growing communities access to exciting and affordable groceries is tremendous,” Larry Liu, founder and CEO of Weee, said in a statement.
Weee will use the additional capital to develop new features and expand the range of products it offers on its platform.
The company also plans to expand its team as it continues to expand its global footprint, and is now hiring for dozens of open positions at its Fremont headquarters. Available roles span finance, brand, marketing and product teams.
Weee’s app has been downloaded more than 670,000 times to date, according to the company. It currently serves 14 cities across the United States and the company intends to expand that number to 30 by 2024.
Weee isn’t the only Bay Area-based e-grocer to rake in serious amounts of cash recently. Earlier this month, Instacart grabbed $265 million.
The company has raised $382.8 million in venture capital financing to date, according to Crunchbase. Additional investors Blackstone, Arena Holdings, and Tiger Global participated in the latest round, among others.
