GoLemon, a newly launched grocery delivery startup has revealed that it will directly sourcs it’s bulk products from farmers and FMCGs a strategy is expected to give the company an edge in the industry.
It however noted that, although GoLemon might have competition in aspects of its product offerings, it does not have an “end-to-end competitor.”
The GoLemon team made this disclosure to journalist recently.
GoLemon is founded by four former senior managers at Paystack, who recently left the payment company to launch the startup.
As a startup that delivers groceries and household items. GoLemon, will be leaning on the six years sordid years of experience of; Yinka Adewuyi, Gbadegbo Gbade-Oyelakin, Abdulrahman Jogbojogbo and Abiola Showemimo, who have previously worked for Paystack.
Forinstance, Adewuyi, a former product lead at Paystack, is now GoLemon’s CEO, while Gbade-Oyelakin, who led Paystack’s core platforms team, is the CTO.
Jogbojogbo, a marketing lead at Paystack, will lead the startup’s growth, and Showemimo, one of the first ten employees at Paystack, will lead operations.
The startup delivers groceries and household items to homes and businesses and will compete with other deep-pocketed companies like Glovo and Chowdeck, a YC-backed company. Competitors like Mano and Pricepally are also popular choices for grocery delivery in Lagos.
One its major strength of the startup will be managing its inventory and fulfillment centres, from a built up sourcing network connected directly to farmers and manufacturers and optimises for the lowest costs possible to attract a wide customer base.
It is interesting to note that, GoLemon’s entry into the market comes months after international giants like Jumia and Bolt exited the food and grocery delivery segment last year.
Although, Francis Dufay, Jumia’s CEO, blamed challenging unit economics, big losses (Jumia Food never turned a profit in any of the 11 countries it operated in), and increasing competition for the decision to shut down Jumia Food.
And while some big players are beating a retreat, Jogbojogbo GoLemon growth manager, believes this is the best time to start a grocery delivery business.
According to him, “It’s difficult to get started right now and get traction but if we can weather the storm right now, I think we would have been able to build a formidable business,”
He added that would rely on Showemimo’s experience as a supermarket owner in Lagos and Gbade-Oyelakin’s experience as head of engineering at Supermart, an online supermarket, will be instrumental in building the business, caters for large orders and was “intentionally designed around people who make repeat orders, repeat purchases and large basket size orders,”
GoLemon was launched, weeks after a former Flutterwave vice-president launched Mira, a foodtech startup.
YC has also increasingly backed foodtech startups, even as it scales back its presence on the continent.
