Investment will expand company's U.S. presence, accelerating growth of its team and powering the development of its food supply chain solution
EAST PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Vori, the revolutionary digital B2B inventory management platform optimizing the grocery supply chain, today announced the completion of a $10 million Series A funding round. The capital will be used to bolster its talent acquisition pipeline, expand its U.S. operations, and broaden its product offering - including their upcoming Vori Back Office solution, enabling more independent grocery retailers nationwide to benefit from its transformative supply chain technology.
The funding round was led by The Factory, a Silicon Valley based venture-fund focused on early stage and deeply technical startups, and included participation from Greylock, E2JDJ, MKT1, and Vori flagship customer, Mollie Stone's Markets – a San Francisco Bay Area family-owned grocery store chain.
"At Vori we believe in using technology to ensure communities have access to the goods they need – starting with food. To accomplish this, the playing field between small businesses and the mega corporations needs to be leveled," said Brandon Hill, CEO and Co-founder, Vori. "I'm proud to say we are arming the rebels by providing food entrepreneurs with affordable and agnostic technology that streamlines their businesses, allowing them to stay competitive. This investment will allow us to expand our team and product to better meet the growing needs of the grocery industry, and to help our customers manage their supply chains, optimize labor, and keep up with evolving market trends and consumer needs."
While grocery shopping is the most common consumer shopping behavior in the world, the grocery industry is the largest undigitized retail segment. Independent grocers make up a third of the U.S. grocery market but cannot afford the same technology and solutions that grocery corporations such as Walmart, Kroger, and Amazon utilize to tackle supply chain and inventory management issues - until Vori.
"At The Factory, we pride ourselves on not just identifying innovative companies, but working alongside them," says Andy Jacques, CEO & Managing Partner, The Factory. "Vori's technology will greatly improve the way grocers are managing their supply chain and inventory. At a time where we are seeing essential products experience historic shortages and all industries experiencing record-breaking inflation, Vori's technology is extremely needed. We are excited about this venture and looking forward to working with the company as it further expands nationwide."
Vori enhances the retailer's inventory management workflows by digitizing traditionally manual labor-intensive processes, undocumented knoweldge, and colossal amounts of analog data. Vori's solution enables grocers to benefit from reordering stock via scanning shelf-tags, advanced technology methods to ensure order quantities and price tags complement supplier cost changes and customer purchasing patterns, and real-time data visibility within a single interface to actuate collaboration among store staff and external trading partners. The solution increases productivity by decreasing the time it takes to replenish inventory by up to 80% while tackling the U.S. food waste problem that creates an annual loss of around $408 billion.
"The relationship between the grocery industry and technology is in desperate need of updating," said Mike Duboe, General Partner, Greylock. "Vori's fresh take on inventory management is the shift this industry has been looking for. We are proud to support the company in bringing its solution to more grocers."
This investment will also support the launch of Vori's new solution Vori Back Office, which enables grocery stores to reduce shrink and increase efficiency by digitizing manual, human error-prone, and time-consuming tasks. Vori Back Office achieves this by utilizing features including cost change tracking, digital order management, scan-based receiving, automatic invoicing, DSD vendor management, and digital credit requests.
Vori has raised $15.3M to date, with additional investments made by Y Combinator, Village Global, South Park Commons, grocery experts from Safeway/Albertsons, co-founders from Instacart, DoorDash, and Twitch, as well as another Vori flagship customer, Good Stuff Distribution.
Vori received legal counsel from Caine Moss, Goodwin Procter. Goodwin Procter also provided legal counsel to The Factory and Greylock for their investment.
Vori is currently building out a number of teams including product, design, and engineering. Additional information can be found here.
About Vori
Vori is the only modern operating system for the grocery industry. Our technology allows local and regional supermarkets to easily replenish their shelves, manage pricing, and control inventory right at their fingertips–empowering retailers to improve profitability and optimize labor. Vori was founded in 2019 by Stanford University alumni and has a team with over 100 years of grocery experience. Vori is backed by The Factory, Greylock, Y Combinator, Village Global, South Park Commons, grocery industry experts from Safeway/Albertsons, and co-founders from Instacart, DoorDash, and Twitch. Learn more at vori.com.
Media Contact
Taylor R Hixson, ARPR, 6266608295, [email protected]
Simone Hadley Wilson, Vori, 402-917-6175, [email protected]
SOURCE Vori
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