Avokado – the online shopping service – raises a seed round
Hungarian start-up „Avokado”, what is the concept behind it?
Our days revolutionizing the FMCG e-commerce sector is not easy. The ones taking this challenge in Hungary are part of a start-up named „Avokado”. The goal is to bring a smooth and unique shopping experience to users who are enabled to shop from multiple stores while getting all delivered at once to their doorstep. On the other hand, the goal of the retailers is to enable expansion to the digital world while widening their customer base.
Avokado’s current investment
Current seed funding gave proof of Avokado’s business concept & and business model. The investor is ED Group (investment holding of Balázs Várkonyi and Gyula Kelemen). Várkonyi and Kelemen are very well-known successful entrepreneurs in the field of e-commerce which is bringing waste experience and „smart money” to the Avokado team.
Excellent founding team
Some of Avokado’s team members are Tibor Székács, Erik Barcsay and Szabina Matócza each individual with decades of experience in e-commerce. Tibor is the CEO of Avokado, coming with experience in execution & and leading the whole process of launching „Aldi” in Hungary, after which was the Group Managing Director of Hofer, responsible for more than 800 stores. Erik founded BIG FISH, an e-commerce-focused software company, that offers its services tailored to market leader players’. Kristóf is coming with the background of introducing and leading Tesco Online in Hungary. Szabina built Háda’s Webshop (Hungary’s largest second-hand fashion online store) handling 40 000 products monthly and overseeing expansion to 6 countries, other than that at Cherrisk.com she managed the international rollout, and as VP of e-commerce for 4 years overseeing the rollout to 3 countries and building the team from 6 to 70 people.
Partnering with ED Group is bringing an additional layer of expertise. Várkonyi back in 2001 year founded with his partner Extreme Digital web shop, which expanded to 9 countries. In 2019 it merged with eMAG, another regional e-commerce giant and Várkonyi became its CEO with more than 800 employees. In 2023 from eMAG group separated Vatera.hu (online auction portal) and Ingatlan.com (Hungarian local major real estate website) and Balázs announced that Vatera and Jófogas (classifieds website) would merge and become the biggest domestic used goods market. During more than 2 decades of his e-commerce industry-specific experience, he gained numerous awards and recognitions.
Steady growth in online grocery
Some of the pain points in the online shopping current market are sometimes 10-25% higher prices than in stores, logistic struggles of bigger chains that can’t cope with short delivery times, missing best-seller products online, and no same-day delivery. Current retail market trends no doubt are moving the tendencies to the growing market of online shopping experience where Avokado sees an existing gap and market niche still to fulfill.
Proof of concept is also an example of Instacart in the USA that Avokado sees as a familiar idea that they would like to tailor to the domestic market needs, said Szabina Matócza, Avokado’s Managing Director.
Our role in securing Avokado’s seed investment
Absolvo is convinced that this team can build the next possible unicorn, and that’s why we joined them on this journey. Starting now with the first step (a seed round) and accompanying them for future A/B series rounds in the not-too-distant future. Our team proudly supported them in rethinking the growth strategy, positioning the story, financial planning and then establishing talks with local and international investors, negotiating the terms, and assisting in deal signing. More and other levels of achievements are yet to come!