Urbery

Urbery Inc. operated as a pioneering force in the Canadian on-demand economy, launching in 2014 as the country's first platform for grocery and alcohol delivery. The company was established by Mudit Rawat, who transitioned from a corporate strategy role at Sobeys, one of Canada's largest grocery retailers, to the world of entrepreneurship. His experience at Sobeys provided him with deep insights into the retail sector's operational dynamics and its vulnerability to technological disruption. Rawat identified a market need for convenience and sought to build a solution after leaving his corporate career in late 2013.

The business model was initially based on the successful framework of Instacart in the United States, leveraging a crowdsourced network of personal shoppers, branded as 'Grocery Gurus'. These vetted and trained shoppers would fulfill customer orders from various local grocery stores and deliver them within a two-hour window. Urbery's value proposition centered on saving consumers time and the hassle of in-store shopping. The company generated revenue through commissions on each delivery. The service catered to urban consumers seeking efficiency in their daily errands, delivering goods from retailers like Loblaws, Whole Foods, and even the LCBO for alcohol purchases.

By 2017, Urbery began to explore a business-to-business (B2B) strategy, developing a platform to enable major Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies to establish direct-to-consumer (D2C) e-commerce channels. This pivot aimed to empower brands like Ben & Jerry's, a Unilever subsidiary, to sell directly to their customers, thereby bypassing traditional retail intermediaries and building direct customer relationships. Despite these efforts and achieving over $1 million in revenue within 14 months, Urbery ultimately faced challenges in securing its next round of funding, which led to the cessation of its operations.

Keywords: Mudit Rawat, on-demand delivery, grocery delivery Canada, alcohol delivery, crowdsourced shoppers, Grocery Gurus, personal shopping service, e-commerce platform, direct-to-consumer, CPG e-commerce, Sobeys, last-mile delivery, Canadian tech, Toronto startup, retail technology, Nexus Commerce, on-demand economy, grocery app, convenience service, asset-light model