“Russia’s Google” or Yandex to give it its proper name has landed in the UK and set up an ultra-fast delivery service to challenge the UK’s supermarket chains. Uber and Ocado.
The Yango Deli app was launched in the capital on Thursday with a promise to deliver groceries within 15 minutes and to a target market of 1.4mln people.
Four “dark stores” have opened in London to service the demand.
Ultrafast delivery is a serious threat to the established supermarket chains according to JP Morgan, which for some time has been warning about the potential for new entrants to grab market share.
Only last month, it recommended shorting Sainsbury’s because of the potential hit to its business.
In a (small) survey of Londoners, JPM found around a third use an ultrafast service once a month and 13% on a weekly basis.
Consumers surveyed also said the prices they were charged seemed fair and on a par with traditional shopping.
JPM also highlighted there was no shortage of money to back start-ups such as Gorillas, ZAPP, and Getir.
Supermarkets facing existential threat from ultra-fast delivery upstarts
Yandex, which is already listed on Nasdaq, is valued at $27bn and is also Russia’s largest search engine with business in ride-hailing, email, news and food delivery.
Yango Deli will initially target hipster neighbourhoods such as London’s Bethnal Green, Battersea, Bermondsey and Acton.
Its mini-warehouses or dark store chain are operated by Yandex.Lavka, which manages a network of over 400 dotcom centres in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, as well as in Israel, Paris and now London, said the Tass Agency,
