The cofounder of Sydney-based grocery supply startup Voly, Thibault Henry, has confirmed the enterprise has shut down, per week after the corporate ceased operations.
Henry used LinkedIn to announce his startup’s demise on Friday morning, saying the corporate’s present backers weren’t prepared to help the enterprise additional.
Final week VOLY deleted all its social media accounts and on Friday night suspended deliveries.
Per week on, Henry introduced Voly had “stopped working in Australia”.
The Sydney-based on-line grocery store launched in July 2021 with the promise of grocery supply quarter-hour or much less. It raised $18 million in a Seed spherical led by Sequoia Capital India alongside World Founders Capital and Australian-based Artesian Capital in December final 12 months.
Whereas Voly’s cofounders instructed employees earlier this 12 months that the enterprise had sufficient runway to outlive till February 2023, the primary indicators of bother emerged in June, simply weeks after rival Ship collapsed into voluntary administration in Could, when Voly retrenched half its workplace employees and closed warehouses.
Henry stated on LinkedIn that it “has been a phenomenal journey on an “bold venture”, however they’d run out of funds to make it work.
“The sudden modifications in macro surroundings, unstable geopolitics and excessive inflation have made it extraordinarily tough to draw new capital regardless of the help of our present traders. With out sufficient runway to achieve profitability we needed to make the tough resolution to cease working,” he stated.
“Thanks to the complete VOLY Household!! It has been an absolute pleasure to work alongside you all. You have to be bloody pleased with what you’ve achieved! You’re all extraordinarily proficient and superb human beings! We had one thing particular. One thing completely different. One thing unbelievable.”
Henry stated 80,000 Sydneysiders had used the service and thanks his cofounder and co-CEO, Mark Heath.
“We promised ourselves to steer with respect, positivity and to all the time see the perfect in individuals. On this regard, I consider we now have succeeded,” he stated.
“To each founder on the market, it’s a powerful surroundings, grasp in there and good luck with all the pieces.”
Henry’s announcement got here simply 48 hours after UK-listed meal supply enterprise Deliveroo shut down in Australia, going into voluntary administration after seven years out there.
Deliveroo stated the Australian market “is very aggressive” and it didn’t have a path to profitability “with out appreciable monetary funding, and the anticipated return on such funding will not be commensurate with Deliveroo’s threat/reward thresholds”.
