Cortilia, an Italian Online Local Grocery Marketplace, announced today a €1.5 million round lead by Milan-based venture capital firm P101. This new capital injection brings the total funds raised by the company since its founding in 2011 to €2.5 million and represents the first step of a midterm €5 million Investment Plan.
P101 thus joins a pool of investors who have already bet on the company, providing not only fresh capitals but also a wealth of knowledge and know-how that will allow Cortilia to further develop its business and consolidate its market position.
“I am extremely pleased with this investment, which is the first step of an ambitious plan we agreed with both the Company’s management and its shareholders,” said Andrea Di Camillo, Managing Partner at P101. “Cortilia represents what an investor looks for in a start-up: a young and fast growing company, operating in a very large market with an innovative business model. Thanks to this investment and the resources that we are going to put in place, I believe that, in the medium term, we will able to turn this Italian story into an international success.”
Cortilia aims to expand its market presence in Italy, to invest in R&D hiring new talents and extend the range of products and the fruition modality of the service offered to the public. With an established market position in Lombardy, the Italian online local grocery marketplace has been chosen by more than 50,000 customers, boasting of annual revenues of over €2 million in 2014. The Company is now getting ready to speed up its market penetration in Lombardy in order to consolidate its leadership and to launch its service in other Northern Italy’s cities. Moreover Cortilia is planning to further develop the web platform to seize all the opportunities linked to food e-commerce and mobile commerce, which are rapidly growing in Italy.
“Thanks to our customers who trust us, to farmers who enthusiastically join Cortilia and a young and talented team, we will continue to expand the range of services and products offering”, said Marco Porcaro, CEO and Founder of Cortilia. “With these new resources and with the support of P101, we want to expand our team and improve the platform and logistic service, covering new geographical areas. In the coming months we will involve at least 50 new farmers, that will find in Cortilia a partner capable of enhancing their productive excellence. Our results demonstrate that, as Expo 2015 will confirm in the next few months, you can innovate by creating new models of distribution of food”.
Cortilia is the first agricultural online marketplace that allows users to receive at their doorstep boxes of fresh, seasonal products in subscription or occasionally. This innovative model of purchase – allowing supply and demand to meet without costly intermediaries – responds to the growing need of consumers to eat healthily and sustainable, in just a click away.
