Alorsfaim, a Paris-based e-grocery company specialising in authentic and high-quality Asian food, has raised EUR4 million in seed funding, enabling the fast-growing start-up to continue its rapid expansion across the vast Asian community in France and Europe.
The round was led by iFly.vc with participation from Cathay Innovation and Goodwater Capital.
Founded in 2018, Alorsfaim initially started as a meal delivery platform collaborating with over 600 authentic Asian restaurants. In March 2020, during the most challenging period of the pandemic in France, the company launched its e-grocery delivery service to help sustain the Asian community’s access to products in high demand. From the company’s earliest beginnings, the founders – Yejun Fan and Yingfeng Li have always shared the belief that when it comes to food, quality and accessibility should never be compromised. Even after expanding into the grocery business, the same core value remains and has been scaled up to the next level.
After witnessing the shortcomings of relying on third parties, especially with regards to stock management and customer experience, the team quickly decided to build their own warehouse and inventory management system. In less than a year, Alorsfaim expanded its service to 5 regions in France and three cities in Belgium leading to an explosion of its monthly revenues which multiplied by more than 10 over the period.
Alorsfaim is now looking forward to deploying the new funds on the development of their logistics capabilities and the expansion of its team to sustain its rapid growth. Already benefitting from a rich and diverse talent pool of engineers, bankers, grocery industry veterans and marketing specialists, the company seeks to attract more talented professionals to the rising e-grocery sector. The next step in Alorsfaim’s strategy consists of adding to its product offering and expanding its activities across Europe.
From his first contact with the founders and team, Han Shen, Founding Partner of iFly.vc, a US-based fund, was struck by the alignment in vision and values between Alorsfaim and iFly.vc.
“The exceptional harmony between them regarding the growth strategy and business model to adopt led to a natural partnership,” says Shen. “iFly.vc has witnessed first-hand the phenomenal growth of Weee! in the past few years, which confirmed Alorsfaim’s vision with regards to the promising future of ‘DtoC grocery delivery for underserved ethnic communities’, and how to go about building a systemic advantage in that field. Our trust was further deepened by the motivation and commitment of Alorsfaim’s team members, who are very talented, full of vigor, and eager to learn. I invest in teams who are capable of acting fast. Alorsfaim’s team reminds me of Weee! in the early days.”
Jean-François Cochy, Investment Director at Cathay Innovation, says: “Over the past few years, we witnessed and participated as investors in the development of the e-groceries and smart-retailing market in Europe, through our investments in Glovo, and in other parts of the World, notably with Pinduoduo and Cloudpick. Beyond a first wave of generalist players providing mainstream products, we foresee the emergence of a new generation of players catering to the specific needs of ethnic communities – which are massively underserved. We are convinced Alorsfaim can become a leader in this market in Europe. Cathay Innovation will support the development of the company with our global platform linking resources in logistics, technology and brands, as well as leverage our existing partnerships with major corporate investors such as Pernod Ricard.”
Yejun FAN, Founder and CEO of Alorsfaim, explains: “Originally targeting Asian consumers based in France, the company has created a huge customer base through its food delivery business within a short period. Now, the company is expanding its services to e-grocery, allowing customers to reach a wide range of quality, well-selected, and previously unobtainable products to satisfy all their needs. Given the current market situation, the company must provide the best products and impeccable customer experience by delivering the promised service to its fast-growing customer base. With the additional funds, the team is now on the right path to achieve this objective.”
