Indonesian online grocery platform Bananas stops ops

Indonesia's e-Grocery start-up founded in 2021 Bananas has closed its operations. According to CNBC Indonesia, the company said it was forced to close the service even though, it has witnessed drastic growth throughout its operations.In its Instagram post, the company revealed its decision two days ago informing its followers that it will stop operating after clearing out its discounted products.

After attempting and experimenting with business models, Bananas decided to prioritise its remaining runway from its investors for its future investments. On the other hand, it ensures support its top talents throughout this process and transition. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Bananas for further inquiries.

According to East Ventures, in February, the company managed to bag US$1 million in seed funding, which was led by East Ventures - with the participation from SMDV, ARISE, MDI Ventures and a few other investors. At that point, Bananas had successfully secured a total of US$ 1.5 million in the seed round of funding.

Mario Gaw, Founder and CEO of Bananas, said during the seed funding that the company was established during the pandemic era, when it realised the needs of customers of top quality grocery items, speed, and convenience during these difficult times was paramount.

Bananas was birthed to bridge the market with the future of grocery shopping.  Customers can shop the desired grocery item, pay, and expect the delivery to be completed within 10 minutes on average through the Bananas mobile application. Bananas has built tech-enabled micro-hubs, namely “dark stores”, near high-density residential neighborhoods to deliver the groceries close to being instant. According to Bananas' LinkedIn, the grocery platform was launched in several neighbourhood areas in Jakarta by promising to have its customers groceries to be delivered within minutes.