Earlier this week Zakaz.ua, Ukraine’s leading online grocery delivery operator, launched its service in Boston, USA, under the CartFresh brand. Russo’s, a family-run market known for its fresh fruits and vegetables and cheese selection, has teamed up with the startup to expand its customer base, reports Beta Boston.
The Ukrainian startup landed in Boston several months ago as a participant in the startup accelerator program Techstars.
“We want to expand the best retailers to a wider geographic area,” Beta Boston quoted Zakaz.ua founder Yegor Anchishkin as saying. “We have to find the best retailer in every category.”
With such criteria in mind, the Ukrainian entrepreneur chose to start with Russo’s instead of a larger or more centrally-located company.
Among CartFresh’s US competitors are Instacart – which partners unofficially with Russo’s, – Google Express, and Peapod, notes Beta Boston.
“There are already plenty of competitors, and I don’t know that we need another. They’d better have some way to differentiate themselves from the rest,” commented Don Davis, editor-in-chief of Internet Retailer, in an exchange with Ukraine Digital News.
A Ukrainian success story
Zakaz.ua was launched in 2010 by Anchishkin, whose first startup, Viewdle, was acquired by Google in 2012.
Even though the startup serves just two Ukrainian cities, Kyiv (Kiev) and Dnipropetrovsk (Dnepropetrovsk), industry experts generally view it as an example of a scalable business model that can adapt to virtually any market.
Anchishkin had originally planned on entering the Russian market. However, in connection with the tensions between the two countries, he decided to change his focus and concentrate on other markets.
