Online Grocer Raises Millions
from the what-year-is-it? dept
No, don’t worry. It’s not 1999 again, though, the headline certainly reminds me of a similar one from that year. This time, it’s FreshDirect, the NYC based online grocer who keeps showing up in article after article claiming that they’ve finally figured out how to do online groceries the right way – though, only if you live in specific parts of Manhattan. The company has now raised another $31 million, which seems like quite a bit to bet on a local play with low margins. It sounds like they’ve been careful not to make the same mistakes as previous companies – but that doesn’t mean they won’t make new mistakes and it certainly doesn’t mean that it will ever turn into the sort of business that should be backed by venture money. That doesn’t mean I don’t think they can’t be successful – but venture capital is designed for high growth markets, and it’s unclear if this is a high growth market.
