Farmy raises CHF 10m for expansion

Farmy has raised 10 million Swiss francs of additional capital. According to a press release, the online market for fresh and sustainable organic groceries won over Triodos Organic Growth Fund as a new investor in its latest round of financing. Isabelle Laurencin, Principle Investment Manager of the Dutch fund, called Farmy a “very impressive company with a strong focus on sustainability” that has set “new standards in the regional food supply”. Existing and new private investors also contributed to the latest financing round.

The Zurich-based start-up intends to use the new financing to expand its e-mobile fleet, delivery areas and processing capacities. The funding will also go towards developing its in-house IT and marketing services.

Alongside its online store, the company is developing a second mainstay as an IT service provider to help food producers and associations, as well as offline retailers in the food industry, to digitise their services. Jucker Farm and Bio Suisse, the umbrella organization of some 7,300 Swiss organic farmers, are the first customers of its IT services.

“Over the past six years, we have become an e-food export and have developed a unique IT infrastructure,” said Roman Hartmann, Farmy co-founder and co-CEO. “But although the willingness of customers to buy food online is growing fast – something that has been given a boost by COVID-19 – we still see an severe lack of e-food skills in the market.”

The online farm store increased its sales by 160 percent in the first half of 2020 compared to the previous year, and the company expects that this will rise to 190 percent for the year as a whole. Farmy brought in 11.5 million Swiss francs in sales in the first six months, allowing it to strengthen its position as the third largest online food retailer in Switzerland.  

As part of the latest financing round, new investor representatives are joining Farmy’s board of directors: Thomas Harttung, co-founder of Aarstiderne, a Danish online provider of subscription organic food boxes, Isabelle Laurencin from Triodos Fund and Dominique Locher, former CEO of LeShop.ch. Martin Jucker of Jucker Farm and David Schmid of Pistor AG are stepping down from the board.