99. Grocemania

Founder: Askar Bulegenov and Alexander Zhexembayev
Founded: 2017
Website: www.grocemania.co.uk

Delivery services can make grocery shopping incredibly convenient, but they’re more important than that. They may be the only option for many people trapped at home, whether from a disability, childcare responsibilities or even, bear with me here, a global pandemic.

Grocemania, launched in 2017 by founders Askar Bulegenov and Alexander Zhexembayev, aims to bring affordable grocery and household item delivery services to everyone.

The UK-based business teams up with local convenience or specialised stores to ensure a fresh product can arrive quickly. They charge consumers as little as £2.50 per drop, though there’s an added product mark-up of 20% to 30% on each order. In exchange, customers will get dozens of local stores within a single app, with deliveries that take just 36 minutes on average.

This business model is a boon for the stores as well, since they can’t afford a delivery team of their own. Grocemania creates and manages each online store account, without charging stores anything. By refusing to ask for commissions or joining fees, the service helps independent retailers make more sales while competing with bigger online retailers like Ocado and Amazon. Top stores on the Grocemania platform are generating an impressive £20,000 per month.

Today, Grocemania’s future is bright: the service has more than 6,000 drivers active across the UK, and has nearly reached 100 partner stores. As delivery services are only becoming more and more essential to our daily lives, Grocemania has plenty of room to grow as fast as the produce it delivers.