Instacart is acquiring Rosie, an e-commerce platform for local and independent retailers and wholesalers, the company announced on Wednesday. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2013, Rosie offers independent grocers branded e-commerce websites and mobile app capabilities that power order flow, fulfillment and customer insights. The company’s product features include shoppable weekly ads, rewards programs integrations, third-party fulfillment logistics integrations, payment processing and more. Rosie, which is based in Ithaca, New York, has raised $11.9 million to date.
Instacart says the acquisition will allow it to introduce new e-commerce solutions for local and independent retailers that complement its Instacart Platform e-commerce offerings, which give retailers access to the solutions behind Instacart’s consumer marketplace to help them enhance customer experience and help their businesses grow.
“Local and independent grocers are so important to the grocery ecosystem,” said Chris Rogers, the chief business officer at Instacart, in a statement. “They have loyal customers, create meaningful job opportunities and serve as cornerstones of their communities. The Rosie team understands these grocers better than anyone, and that’s why we’re proud to welcome them to Instacart. Together, we’ll build more technologies that help independent grocers accelerate their pace of innovation so they can continue to compete, grow, and serve their customers however they choose to shop.”
Instacart says the addition of Rosie’s offerings to the Instacart Platform gives retailers more access to tools that will help them grow their businesses and also find more ways to engage with their customers. It notes that through this acquisition, Rosie customers will have the opportunity to utilize Instacart’s in-store offerings, the Instacart shopper network to help support new picking and fulfillment options, loyalty programs to increase customer engagement and affordability, and more.
“For nearly a decade, our team has lived, breathed, and devoted ourselves to the success of local independent grocers and I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve accomplished together,” said Rosie founder and CEO Nick Nickitas in a statement. “Instacart’s mission of powering the future of grocery is closely aligned with our own, and I’m confident that combining our teams and technologies is the way to best continue serving these important retailers. Together, we will continue to innovate and build easy to use and affordable digital solutions that help our retailer, wholesaler, and brand partners thrive and better meet the needs of their customers.”
Today’s announcement marks Instacart’s second acquisition in the past week and its fourth acquisition in the past 12 months.
Last week, Instacart announced that it’s acquiring Eversight, an AI-powered pricing and promotions platform for Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands and retailers, for an undisclosed amount. Instacart said the acquisition will give retailers and CPG brands access to new individualized and customized pricing tools, along with dynamic insights about customer behavior to improve sales, growth and customer experience.
Last October, Instacart acquired Caper AI, a startup that builds smart cart and cashier-less checkout technology that uses computer vision and other techniques to detect items and ring them up for shoppers, for around $350 million, in a combination of cash and shares. The company’s acquisition of Caper AI followed just weeks after Instacart acquired FoodStorm to help stores take and manage catering-style larger orders of ready-made food. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Instacart acquires Rosie to offer new e-commerce solutions for local and independent retailers by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch
