Astro Announces Series A Funding Worth of 387 Billion Rupiah

An online grocery start-up with the quick-commerce concept, Astro, announced $27 million Series A funding or equivalent to 387 billion Rupiah. The round was led by Accel and Sequoia Capital India. Some previous-funding venture capitalists were also invoved, including AC Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Lightspeed, and Goodwater Capital.

Some angel investors backed this company, including founders and senior executives from Traveloka, Ajaib, Meesho, OYO, Swiggy, and Udaan. Astro will immediately use the funds to expand its reach in Indonesia. In addition, it will be channeled to increase human resources up to 3 times by the end of 2022.

“Astro adheres to the mission to improve the quality of life of people in Indonesia by providing convenience shopping for daily needs. Our Astronauts [partners] are ready to deliver groceries and essentials within 15 minutes, therefore, you can spend time, energy and money on other things,” Astro's Co-Founder & CEO, Vincent Tjendra said.

Since its launching in September 2021, Astro has established 15+ hubs throughout Jakarta with 1,500+ product SKUs, from food, vegetables, meat, and other daily necessities. The Astro app has been downloaded by hundreds of thousands of people on the Google Playstore. This hub is an important infrastructure for Astro, because their quick-commerce concept guarantees a maximum delivery process of 15 minutes after the order is completed -- even for product returns if it doesn't match.

Competition for the leading online grocery

Previously, in an interview with DailySocial.id, Vincent said, the quick commerce business model provides its own competitive advantages for Astro, including offering convenience and speed through instant delivery, a 24 hours online store with a wide variety of products to meet customer's needs.

Astro uses the existence of 'dark stores' as distribution centers placed at various points to allow instant delivery services. Astro utilizes an in-house logistics fleet to accommodate all orders. The flat shipping cost per order is IDR 15 thousand with  the minimum transaction of IDR 50 thousand.

According to the data, the current retail sector in Indonesia for foodstuffs has a fairly low penetration, which is around 0.4% compared to the penetration of e-commerce that reaches 10%. However, the pandemic is widely seen as an opportunity for online grocery to build the market. According to the research, this sector is projected to grow at $6 billion in 2025.

In Indonesia alone, some players also provide similar services, here are the top list of leading applications on Google Play in the shopping category (as of 02 February 2022). This rating fluctuates, indicating the growth rate of downloads and usage of related apps.