Groceries delivery start-up Dija launches with 10-minutes promise

The already seeming crowded market for home delivery of groceries has a new entrant today after a new service promising ten-minute deliveries in London launched this morning. The start-up behind the ambitious promise is Dija, founded last year by former Deliveroo executives Yusuf Saban and Alberto Menalascina.

Dija, which has raised $20 million from venture capital investors, enters a space for rapid groceries delivery that already features established competition in the form of Amazon, Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Ocado Zoom, Sainsbury’s Chop Chop and Waitrose Rapid. The big supermarkets also all offer standard 1-2 day delivery and click-and-collect options.

Co-founder Menolascina, who originally hails from Puglia, Italy, was inspired by his homeland when picking a name for their start-up with Saban. The word is derived from the colloquial Italian phrase di gia, which translates as ‘already here’. He commented on how he believes Dija can offer customers something more than other services that promise speed delivery with:

“Amazon’s Prime Now isn’t really now, unless you believe that now is two to four hours. We guarantee ten minutes so people can buy what they want to eat now. People don’t want to plan any more. They are time- poor. That is the reality.”

Mr Menolascina has a track record that suggests he is well placed to try and realise Dija’s ambitious service goal. A computing engineering graduate he is now a serial entrepreneur, having also co-founded Everli (formerly Supermercato24), an Instacart-style Italian groceries delivery company. He has also worked at both Just East and Deliveroo, spending three and a half years at the latter.

The trick to its 10-minute delivery promise lies in the fact that Dija, unlike most of its competitors, will not pick-up orders from supermarket and convenience store partners. It has instead built up a network of mini warehouses hosted in vacant high street shops and conveniently located industrial sites. These mini warehouses stock around 2000 items, which can be rapidly packed to order and sent out, often via bike to beat the traffic.

The ‘dark stores’ strategy is backed up by a technology system that adjusts the rate at which orders are accepted at peak times and when traffic might lead to delays. If the delivery fails to meet its 10-minute deadline, the customer receives free delivery for three months. The usual charge is £1.99 per order.

Sainsbury’s this week announced it is to shut down its only dark store because it has found it is cheaper for it to pick online orders from its supermarket shelves. But Dija believes the fact its business model is purely focused on quick local deliveries means its experience will be different. Mr Saban explains:

“Grocery stores aren’t designed to facilitate the fast fulfilment of orders; rather, they are designed for browsing. We have put a ten-minute delivery speed and consummate reliability at the front and centre. Our hubs are designed so that fulfilment is the fastest possible.”

The Dija service has been tested through soft launches in South Kensington, Fulham and Hackney and a further 20 London sites are planned as it rolls out across the capital. Trial runs showed average delivery times of 8 and a half minutes being achieved. Orders were put together by workers in the dark stores in just a minute and a half before setting off for their buyer.

Artificial intelligence algorithms are used to optimise order packing times. An optimal route around the store is plotted based on a detailed map of where products are located. Products are grouped by their frequency of order, rather than typical ordering by category, such as canned, refrigerated or dairy goods.

Dija also doesn’t employ its product pickers and delivery drivers on the same gig-economy basis as rivals like Deliveroo and Uber Eats. Instead, it will rely on a similar model to Domino’s Pizza employs with “floating drivers” entitled to sick and holiday pay.

Dija’s investors include Creandum, Index Ventures and Blossom Capital. All three have also backed Deliveroo and Farfetch. Creandum partner Carl Fritjofsson commented on his company’s investment in the start-up with:

“We’ve scanned all of Europe for the next-generation grocery shopping experience and if anyone is going to deliver it, it’s Alberto and Yusuf. Their impressive track record and vision is what’s needed to become a leader in this space.”