Investors give €2m boost to Vromo’s move from delivery to software
*This Article originally appeared on the Sunday Business Post June 9th 2019 edition. Article credit: Killian Woods. Photo Credit: Fergal Phillips*
A former Just Eat executive and other private investors have pumped more than €2 million into Irish start-up Vromo to fund its pivot away from delivery services.
Vromo - formerly known as WeBringg - was founded by Alan Hickey and Sean Murray in 2015. The firm initially focused on the provision of an Amazon-style same-day delivery service and oversaw delivery services for Just Eat in Ireland.
Speaking to The Sunday Business Post, Vromo co-founder Sean Murray said the start up had: "totally pivoted" away from the provision of delivery services and was now a "software-only business".
He added that the start-up sealed a €2.18 million round of investment last December in order to fund the rebrand to its new name of Vromo.
The cash injection was also put towards hiring more employees to further develop its software offering.
It is specifically used for food delivery and uses traffic data, kitchen preparation times and wail times in restaurants to optimise the delivery process.
Investors who contributed to the round included Ergo founder John Purdy and former Just Eat international director Brian Hickey - the latter has joined Vromo as head of strategy.
The funds raised have also been put towards Vromo's move into the US market, according to Murray.
Vromo now counts Burger King and food delivery market places such as Just Eat and Menulog as customers of its software product, and it has struck further deals with delivery firms in South America, Asia and Canada.
Last year, it also expanded to Australia through the acquisition of Perth-based business Spatula.
Murray said the move towards being a software-only business had allowed the Dublin-based start-up to scale at a more rapid pace.
"For us to do that on our own under the old model would have taken years and innumerable resources - it just would have been a lot more difficult to scale up," Murray said
"We' re about to start out on the fundraising trail again. We're looking towards quarter four of this year to do quite a significant series A round"
*This Article originally appeared on the Sunday Business Post June 9th 2019 edition. Article credit: Killian Woods. Photo Credit: Fergal Phillips*