Albertsons teams up with joint venture to create fund to invest in grocery tech

American grocery firm, Albertsons, has teamed up with venture capital firm Greycroft to create a fund that will invest in emerging companies and technologies in the grocery sector.

The companies say that the fund will combine Greycroft’s investment knowledge and connections in the early-stage technology industry and Albertsons' grocery experience, scale and presence in e-commerce.

“As our e-commerce companies scale, they often incorporate a brick-and-mortar strategy to reach the entire U.S. market,” said Ian Sigalow, co-founder and partner of Greycroft. 

“This partnership with Albertsons Companies will enable our companies to tap into their 34 million weekly customers across a wide range of industries, including consumer products, healthcare, wellness, pharmaceuticals and grocery.

“We believe that consumers should be able to get access to these high-quality products and services whenever they want, wherever they want, and that requires a coast to coast footprint.”

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Albertson’s investment comes as part of its strategy to invest in new and emerging technologies impacting the sector.

Earlier, this year the American retailer announced that it plans to launch an online marketplace for food and wellness products called Albertsons Companies Marketplace.

In the first quarter of the 2018 fiscal year, Albertsons reported that its e-commerce sales, including sales of Plated meal kits, grew 108% compared to the same period last year. 

Albertsons Companies is committed to meeting customers wherever and however they like to shop, and part of that is being at the forefront of the tremendous innovation our industry has seen over the last five years,” said Shane Sampson, chief marketing and merchandising officer. 

“As we saw with our recent acquisition of Plated, Albertsons Companies has the capital, scale and expertise to power future growth of the most promising emerging businesses and technologies across the food and grocery space.”