Ultrafast delivery platform expands to Boston
Jokr is bringing its 15-minute delivery service beyond the boundaries of New York City.
Founded by a New York-based team of former Walmart, Uber, Delivery Hero, and Softbank executives in April 2021, Jokr promises to deliver mobile and online orders to its customers within 15 minutes or less. Starting Thursday, Dec. 2, Jokr’s service is available in several neighborhoods around Boston.
The start-up recently closed a $260 million Series B funding deal that put its valuation at $1.2 billion, giving it unicorn status less than. year after launching. Activant Capital, Balderton, Greycroft, GGV Capital, G-Squared, HV Capital, Kaszek, Mirae Asset, Monashees, Moving Capital, Tiger Global and others participated in the round.
As with competing ultrafast delivery providers such as Gorillas and Gopuff, Jokr relies on a network of strategic micro-fulfillment hubs in and around the cities it operates in. The company fills spontaneous and everyday needs across categories including grocery, personal care, baby, wellness, and household items. The service is free to use, with no minimum order requirements or delivery fees.
In the five months since launching in New York City, Jokr has expanded its coverage area in NYC by 85% to now cover all of Manhattan below 96th street, in addition to Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Brooklyn and Long Island City in Queens. The company currently operates 100 hubs worldwide, with overall order volume roughly doubling every month.
Using artificial intelligence, each hub or micro-distribution center can customize its inventory, updating the products offered based on customer demand in that neighborhood. Jokr offers a curated, local assortment of grocery products, and employs all of its pickers and riders full-time with benefits.
Driven by hyper-localized and neighborhood-specific data, Jokr’s micro-fulfillment hubs are designed to provide the company flexibility and control of its products. Each hub is refreshed on a daily basis, with constantly changing items that rotate based on sales data as well as consumer demand and availability.
These hubs work as micro-distribution centers for pickers to immediately fulfill and hand off an order to a waiting rider, who then delivers the items to customers in 15 minutes or less. According to the company, its prices are on par with, and frequently cheaper than, grocery and corner stores.
At launch in Boston, Jokr is offering deliveries in the neighborhoods of Back Bay East, Beacon Hill, West End, Downtown, Leather District, Chinatown, Bay Village, Fort Point, West Broadway, Seaport District, South Boston, from 8 a.m.-10 p.m. every day. Currently, Jokr provides an assortment of roughly 1,800 items and plans to continue expanding inventory with more customer favorites and local products.
“This expansion marks the next step for Jokr on our path to becoming the leader for fast delivery in the US,” said Tyler Trerotola, U.S. co-founder of Jokr. “Boston is a huge untapped market with tech-forward consumers seeking new ways to shop and live their lives. Jokr will offer these consumers a more personalized, quality, and convenient way of shopping, while also partnering with local businesses to support the community.”
With this latest expansion, Jokr is live in 14 cities across seven countries, including Boston, New York City, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Bogota, Lima, Guadalajara, Santiago De Chile, Monterrey, Medellin, Campinas, Rio de Janeiro and Warsaw. The company plans continue growth into more cities and countries soon.