Madison-based GrocerKey acquired for $42 million
Provider grew quickly as online ordering surged
A Madison-based provider of ecommerce software and service for grocery stores has been acquired for $42 million.
GrocerKey grew rapidly during the pandemic as more consumers shifted to online ordering for groceries. This week, GrocerKey was acquired by Point Pickup Technologies, which works with two of the largest grocery retailers in the United States — Walmart and Kroger.
GrocerKey gives brick-and-mortar retailers a ready-to-use e-commerce platform that integrates with the stores’ existing merchandising, loyalty and point-of-sale technologies. GrocerKey has focused on local and regional retailers — its main customer throughout its growth has been Woodman’s Markets.
Point Pickup Technologies, based in Connecticut, is an enterprise-grade last-mile provider. The company said it was a $42 million deal.
GrocerKey has focused on technology while Point Pickup has focused on its labor force, said GrocerKey co-founder and CEO Jeremy Neren.
“We didn’t have the nationwide human capital — the gig economy workers that Point Pickup focuses on,” Neren said in an interview Friday. “So Point Pickup has hundreds of thousands of gig workers that provide deliveries for grocers nationwide and they have started to deploy that against pick-and-pack activities as well.”
The acquisition of GrocerKey lets Point Pickup offer an end-to-end service from purchase to delivery. Point Pickup has expanded its own purchase and delivery platform beyond grocery to general merchandise, pharmacy.
“You bolt them on together and now a retailer has a full suite of products and solutions that can serve e-commerce needs from the point of purchase to the customer’s doorstep,” Neren said.
Neren founded GrocerKey in 2014. Neren will serve as senior vice president for e-commerce strategy at Point Pickup as part of this deal.