Mercato is an online grocery marketplace that connects consumers with local merchants. Founded by Bobby Brannigan, Dave Bateman, Edward Politis, Jesse Villanueva, Matthew Alarie, and Michael Mason in 2015, Mercato is backed by investors that include Greycroft, Loeb Enterprises, Loeb.nyc, Michael Loeb, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and is headquartered in San Diego.
Mercato raises $26M Series A to help smaller grocers compete online
The pandemic upended the way people shop for their everyday needs, including groceries. Online grocery sales in the U.S. are expected to reach 21.5% of the total grocery sales by 2025, after leaping from 3.4% pre-pandemic to 10.2% as of 2020. One business riding this wave is Mercato, an online grocery platform that helps smaller grocers and specialty food stores get online quickly. After helping grow its merchant sales by 1,300% in 2020, Mercato has now closed on $26 million in Series A funding, the company tells TechCrunch.
The round was led by Velvet Sea Ventures with participation from Team Europe, the investing arm of Lukasz Gadowski, co-founder of Delivery Hero. Seed investors Greycroft and Loeb.nyc also returned for the new round; Mike Lazerow of Velvet Sea Ventures has also now joined Mercato’s board.