Already, the on-demand grocery app and startups are creating waves in the UK tech startup sector. And to stay up in this battle for food delivery dominance, now they are stretching their presence and breaking into the European boundaries.
Recently, London-based Zapp, one of the fast-growing grocery delivery startups, has now launched in Amsterdam. The Netherlands marks the official start of UK-headquartered Zapp’s international expansion, with more European cities to follow soon.
Zapp services will be available in Amsterdam Ring, with Amsterdam Noord and Buitenveldert to follow. Expansion to other Dutch cities is planned in the near future. If we look at the Zapp careers page, it is likely Rotterdam where they have a job listing, so one can expect their services in the city soon.
NL celebrity Bas Smit invests in the startup
Zapp also announced that Dutch entrepreneur and celebrity icon Bas Smit has become an investor with the expansion move. When asked, the amount of investment was not disclosed. Bas initially learned about the company through his long-time friendship with the Zapp founders and decided to get involved as he saw it become popular amongst friends in London.
“I’m Zapp’s biggest fan after witnessing how friends in London have been wowed by the service,” says Bas. “Right from the beginning I knew we needed Zapp in the Netherlands and I’m delighted to help make this happen.”
The products in the app will include global brands such as Ben & Jerry’s and Heineken, and also local Dutch brands including Vlaamsch Broodhuys, De Pindakaaswinkel, and Gebrouwen Door Vrouwen.
So, how does it work?
Download the app, select your items, place an order, and get a delivery within 20 minutes and there is no minimum order. A flat delivery fee of €1.80 is charged per order – for orders over €30, the delivery fee is waived.
Zapp was founded in London in 2020 by seasoned entrepreneurs Joe Falter, who was part of the founding team at Jumia, where he led the on-demand services business through to the group’s IPO, and Navid Hadzaad, who most recently was a product leader at Amazon’s Seattle HQ after founding GoButler and scaling several ventures at Rocket Internet. The Zapp leadership team also spans former employees of Deliveroo, Just Eat, Domino’s and Tesco.
The company is backed by some of the world’s leading investors including Silicon Valley’s Lightspeed, and Europe’s Atomico, the venture capital firm that previously invested in MessageBird, one of Amsterdam’s most successful technology scale-ups. Notable angels, such as Mato Peric, Christopher North (former Amazon UK CEO) and Stefan Smalla (Westwing CEO), have also invested in Zapp.
Zapp employs an all-electric fleet, using a mixture of e-bikes and e-mopeds, and products are delivered in recyclable paper bags. Most recently, the startup has partnered with Planetly to track and reduce its carbon footprint and invest in a number of carbon offsetting projects.
“Zapp is building the future of convenience and that future must be sustainable,” says Steve O’Hear, VP of Strategy at Zapp. “Our delivery fleet has been all-electric from day one, we only use sustainable materials for our own delivery packaging, and have committed to finding further ways to reduce our emissions as we scale the business while offsetting where that isn’t yet possible.”
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