Amsterdam-based grocery app Crisp that focuses on seasonal and local food has closed €35 million in funding. The round was supported by existing as well as new investors, including top Dutch entrepreneurs and family funds.
Supporting investors include some of the best operators in the market like Adriaan Mol (Mollie, Messagebird), John Caspers (Adyen), Sanne Manders (Flexport), Thomas Plantenga (Vinted), as well as seasoned retail executives like Sander van der Laan (Ahold, Action, Douglas) and family offices such as Bookmakers Investments, Timeless Investments and Strikwerda Investments. Also VC’s Keen Ventures and Target Global are again participating in the round.
Crisp will use the fresh funding to build a better food system. Its fully proprietary software and operations system is built for local and seasonal products and the shortest route from farm to fork.
Online supermarket for seasonal and local food
Founded by Michiel Roodenburg, Tom Peeters, and Eric Klaassen in 2018 in Amsterdam, Crisp delivers groceries to the doorstep throughout all of The Netherlands and Belgium. The startup allows country-wide customers to shop from over 900 small-scale suppliers, proving circularity, no waste and responsible farming can have its place in the mass market.
Crisp identifies that a growing consciousness amongst consumers can translate into a healthy model to operate. With the broader online market currently flat or in segments even declining, it continues to grow at 30%, at significantly higher margins and supported by a deeply differentiated offering and high customer loyalty.
To further increase its impact, Crisp is currently being audited to become B Corp certified, and will be closing off this year with a fully carbon neutral operation.
Tom Peeters, co-founder and CEO at Crisp: “We are proud of this funding round, in the current challenging tech climate. We’ve proven to investors we can stay on course with a healthy product and business model, in a turbulent economy.”
“A typical basket is a weekly shop of 30 products, with a value of €85, and 90% of orders come from repeat customers.” Peeters continued, “Margins are supported by a continuous cost rationalisation and an increased efficiency in our supply chain. That was also necessary, given the high inflation. We are not immune to that. The result is that we are on track for The Netherlands being profitable before summer and Belgium following the year after, as we launched in that market only a year ago.”
