Showing an irrepressible appetite for food delivery startups, Target Global, an international venture fund with Russian backers, has just announced its participation in two new investment deals in this field.
As reported by Russian business daily Vedomosti, the fund has led a $1 million funding round for Foodfox.ru. Also participating in the round were several individual investors, including Florian Jansen and Niels Tonsen, co-founders at online clothing retailer Lamoda.ru.
The startup was valued at “$4-8 million,” Vedomosti learned from “a source with knowledge of the matter.”
Launched in March by Sergey Polissar and Maxim Firsov, two former Lamoda executives, Foodfox operates in the Russian capital in partnership with 150 restaurants. The service offers free delivery in 16 minutes on average, according to the company, with an average order value of 1,750 rubles (approximately $27 at the current exchange rate).
Among Foodbox’s competitors are Chefmarket.ru, in which Mitsui invested just weeks ago. The market leader is Delivery Club, a pioneer in this sector which was acquired two years ago by Foodpanda.
International targets for Russian money
Two months ago, Target Global also invested “a few million US dollars” in Lemoncat, a German startup which presents itself as an online marketplace for business catering. The investment has just been revealed by Russian tech blog Firrma.ru, which cites a source in the fund. Also participating in this round were Convenience Food Group, Point Nine Capital and Lukasz Gadowski.
Target Global also has small stakes in Delivery Hero, following a $88 million round in 2014, and in Blue Apron, in which the fund injected $13 million last year.
Initially known as Target Ventures, the fund was launched in 2013 to invest in a variety of segments in the digital consumer space. Its backers are “private Russian individuals who wish to invest in [Western countries] in order to diversify their investment portfolio,” said the fund’s Managing Partner Mikhail Lobanov in a previous exchange with East-West Digital News.
Illustrating the internationalization of Russian venture activity, Target Global now operates from four offices located in Berlin, Moscow, San Francisco and Tel Aviv.
The fund also has portfolio companies in Russia, including Eventbrite clone TimePad and online retailer Babadu.ru. Target Global also made an investment in online confectionary shop MixVille.ru, from which it exited last year.
