Yummy Bazaar in Cinnaminson, the first e-commerce platform dedicated to offering curated gourmet and specialty food locally produced from around the world, is gearing up and growing fast.
IFly Venture, a venture capital firm in Palo Alto, California, recently provided nearly $2.25 million in equity financing for the startup that was co-founded in a garage by Rebecca Chou just three years ago.
“It’s very exciting to be tackling this huge challenge,” Chou told the Philadelphia Business Journal regarding the investment. “They have great experience in e-commerce.”
Chou, a former associate director at Amazon, grew Yummy Bazaar from the garage to a 5,000-square-foot industrial warehouse in Cinnaminson in 2016, and again doubled its footprint this August by taking over adjacent space.
“We’re not Amazon,” Chou said. “We’re not going to offer tens of thousands of products.
“In our case, making sure we provide unique — and the right — products to our customer will be important.”
IFly Venture’s investment will help to increase the company’s offerings (largely based on customer feedback) and also drastically improve its mobile capabilities.
The company, which employs nearly 20, is competing within a fast-growing industry, with online specialty food sales growing faster than brick-and-mortar retail channels and food service over the past two years, according to a report by the Special Food Association and market research firm Mintel.
