Skip to main content

Deck.blue brings a TweetDeck experience to Bluesky users

With over 3 million users and plans to open up more broadly in the months ahead, Bluesky is still establishing itself as an alternative to Twitter/X. However, that hasn’t stopped the developer community from embracing the project and building tools to meet the needs of those fleeing the now Elon Musk-owned social network, formerly known […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/TBbEAPF
Post a Comment

Indonesia’s Astro raises $60M to work on 15-minute grocery delivery

Indonesia’s sprawling archipelago has long been a headache for logistics companies, but there’s no lack of brave challengers. Jarkata-based Astro, which provides 15-minute grocery delivery, has recently closed a $60 million Series B financing round, lifting its total funding to $90 million since the business launched just nine months ago.

The Series B round was led by Accel, Citius and Tiger Global, with participation from existing investors AC Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Lightspeed and Sequoia Capital India. The company declined to disclose its post-money valuation.

The speed at which Astro is attracting investment goes to show the need for hefty upfront investment in the grocery delivery race, which is about establishing a logistics infrastructure quickly and locking in loyal customers ahead of rivals. Founded by Tokopedia veteran Vincent Tjendra, Astro plans to spend its funding proceeds on user acquisition, product development, and hiring more staff to add to its current team of 200.

As in many countries around the world, on-demand delivery got a boost during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. But e-grocery penetration in the country remains low and is estimated to be just 0.5% by 2022, compared to China’s 6% and South Korea’s 34% in 2020.

That means there’s a huge opportunity for companies like Astro that are trying to prove the convenience of online grocery ordering over brick-and-mortar visits. The e-grocery delivery market in Indonesia is projected to reach $6 billion by 2025.

Astro offers 15-minute delivery within a range of 2-3km through its network of rented “dark stores,” which are distribution hubs set up for online shopping only. The company has opted for a cash-intensive model, as it owns the entire user journey going from inventory sourcing, supply chain, mid-mile, to last-mile delivery. The benefit of this heavyweight approach is that it gets to monitor the quality of customer experience.

Astro currently operates in around 50 locations across Greater Jakarta, an area with 30 million residents, through a fleet of about 1,000 delivery drivers. Revenues grew more than 10x over the past few months and downloads hit 1 million, the company said.

The startup is competing with incumbents like Sayurbox, HappyFresh, and TaniHub to win over users. Its customers range from working professionals to young parents at home “who seek convenience,” said Tjendra.

Grocery delivery is notoriously cash-burning, but Tjendra reckoned margins will improve as the business scales. The company’s main source of revenue is the gross margin it earned from the goods sold and delivery fees customers pay. A large chunk of the business’s costs comes from delivery, which the founder believed “will come down over time as we deploy for hubs and subsequently reduce the delivery distance areas.”



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/01y6zWX
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sam Altman launches eyeball-scanning Worldcoin to ‘drastically increase economic opportunity’

Worldcoin Foundation, Sam Altman’s crypto startup with the vision to “drastically increase economic opportunity,” has started the rollout of its services in 20 nations. The startup said it’s rolling out its identity technology as well as the token internationally. Individuals can download World App, the startup’s protocol-compatible wallet software and visit an Orb, the startup’s helmet-shaped eyeball-scanning verification device, to receive their World ID. As TechCrunch has previously noted , Worldcoin is perhaps one of the most audacious efforts to bribe the world to embrace their currency. The startup, founded by OpenAI CEO Altman and Alex Blania, wants to put a crypto wallet (and some of their currency) onto every human’s smartphone, but in order to do so they have to build a way to determine whether someone is a unique human. “If successful, we believe Worldcoin could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable solution for distinguishing humans for AI online wh...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pokémon GO will raise the price of remote raid passes

Pokémon GO is raising the price of remote raid passes, the mobile game announced today. Players used to be able to buy one pass for 100 coins (about $1) or three passes for 250 coins (about $2.50), but the cost of these items will nearly double to 195 coins for one pass, or 525 coins for three passes. Players will now only be able to participate in five raids per day. Raid battles are a key component in Pokémon GO, requiring players to meet up at a set location in real life to battle an extra strong or rare Pokémon. When much of the world went into lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, remote raid passes were initially introduced to enable people to participate in raid battles from afar… and to give its parent company Niantic another income stream. As of last year, Pokémon GO surpassed the milestone of $6 billion in revenue from in-app purchases.  “We believe this change is necessary for the long-term health of the game, and we do not make it lightly,” the Pokémon GO team wr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Apple releases iOS 16.4 with new emojis, web push notifications, voice isolation for calls & more

Apple today released the iOS 16.4 update to users, which includes a number of new features, like an expanded set of emojis, voice isolation for calls, website push notifications and more. Users can update to the latest version by going to Settings > General > Software Update. While iOS updates often simply patch security holes or tweak smaller settings, those that deliver new emojis or expanded functionality are often more popular with consumers, leading to high demand for the download. That means you may have to wait a bit in order to install the latest update on your device. With iOS 16.4, users are getting 31 new emojis. (The release notes reference “21” new emoji, but this just has to do with how the variations are counted). Among the new additions are a shaking face, the long-awaited pink heart, two pushing hands, a Wi-Fi symbol and others, including various animals and objects. The Unicode consortium approved these emojis last year, and it was announced in February the...
Post a Comment
Read more