Meal deliveries in Vietnamese cities usually take lower than half an hour, however grocery deliveries are lagging behind, typically taking as much as two to 3 hours, says Rino founder Trung Thanh Nguyen. By making a vertically-integrated logistics infrastructure centered round “darkish shops,” or shops arrange for order achievement solely, Nguyen says Rino can lower grocery supply instances down to only 10 minutes. The startup, which is able to launch this month in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, introduced in the present day it has raised a $3 million pre-seed spherical from International Founders Capital (GFC), Sequoia Capital India, Venturra Discovery and Saison Capital.
After a wider public launch in March 2022, Rino (which stands for “proper now”) plans to broaden shortly, first in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis’s most densely-populated areas, then in Hanoi.
Earlier than beginning Rino, Nguyen was a part of the founding workforce and chief working officer of Baemin Vietnam, one of many nation’s largest meals supply apps. Earlier than that, he served as Seize Vietnam’s head of GrabBike and GrabExpress.
Rino’s grocery supply app
When requested why he needed to give attention to grocery deliveries after Baemin, Nguyen advised TechCrunch that the speedy adoption of meals deliveries in Vietnam “created a transparent roadmap for the groceries section.”
“4 years in the past, meals supply in Vietnam was sluggish. Meals took as much as an hour to succeed in clients, which meant that people needed to get used to planning meals prematurely,” he stated. “As soon as the platforms decreased it to underneath half-hour, client habits modified shortly and the sector as an entire had a chance to develop greater than 10-fold inside a really brief time.”
Nguyen believes grocery deliveries will observe the identical tempo. Adoption of grocery deliveries elevated throughout COVID-19 lockdowns in Vietnam final yr, and have turn into a daily a part of client buying habits, he stated. “Prospects are prepared, however present supply choices together with retail chains or third-party platforms who ship on behalf of outlets are both too sluggish or unreliable.”
Rino plans to chop that point down by proudly owning its stock, bought immediately from suppliers, and integrating its personal darkish shops into its logistics infrastructure. As a way to make deliveries in such a short while, Nguyen stated Rino will divide every of its cities into service zones with a radius of 1 to 3 kilometers. Every zone may have a devoted darkish retailer owned and operated by Rino, with last-mile deliveries carried out in batches by its personal fleet of riders.
In a ready assertion concerning the funding, Saison Capital companion Chris Sirise stated, “The short commerce panorama has benefitted from everlasting positive aspects as customers of all demographics proceed to depend on e-commerce choices even after COVID-19 lockdowns taper off. What we’ve seen from the founding workforce main as much as the launch reaffirms what we’ve seen from Trung all through his time spearheading development at Baemin Vietnam and Seize—excessive caliber trade leaders who not solely have the insights required to guide the market but in addition the native know-how wanted to actually cater to native wants.”