Another grocery delivery service has announced it will stop operating in Australia.
VOLY announced its demise on Friday.
Co-founder Thibault Henry said in a LinkedIn post he was “deeply saddened” by the move.
“The sudden changes in macro environment, unstable geopolitics and high inflation have made it extremely difficult to attract new capital despite the support of our current investors,” he said.
“Without enough runway to reach profitability we had to make the difficult decision to stop operating.”
The Sydney-based company was a lockdown-era start-up that had been used by 80,000 customers since it launched in 2021. It allowed customers to order groceries via its app, and promised delivery within a matter of minutes.
Friday’s confirmation of its shutdown followed multiple reports it last week it had been laid off staff, and that its app was no longer working
Mr Heny said it was an honour and a privilege to be a co-founder of “such an ambitious project”.
He thanked the customers who had used the service, well as workers, investors and co-founder and co-chief executive Mark Heath.
“To every founder out there, it is a tough environment, hang in there and good luck with everything,” he said at the end of his post.
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Deliveroo shuts down in Australia
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Grocery and meal delivery companies leave Australia
VOLY’s collapse follows the demise of a rival service known as Send earlier this year.
Like VOLY, Send promised to deliver groceries to customers in just minutes. It was available in select suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne.
After Send folded, a report revealed the company had spent $11 million in eight months.
Just this week, Deliveroo, one of the first delivery meal services to launch in Australia, also shut down.
Deliveroo launched in Sydney and Melbourne in 2015. On Wednesday, the company revealed it had gone into voluntary administration and would cease operating in Australia immediately.
It had more than 100 staff in Australia, as well as 15,000 delivery workers and 12,000 restaurants that had signed on.
In a statement, the British company said it had made the “difficult decision” to pull out of Australia after assessing the market.
Transport Workers’ Union national secretary Michael Kaine said the TWU was seeking a meeting with Deliveroo administrators, hoping to get assistance for delivery workers.
He said thousands who relied on Deliveroo as a source of income would be shocked by the news.
Rival takeaway delivery service Menulog said on Friday it would honour unused Deliveroo vouchers and giftcards. It has also offered Deliveroo workers an expedited set-up to join the Menulog network.
“We know there are couriers out there who will be feeling the impact of this,” managing director Morten Belling said.
“We can help couriers to get up and running on the Menulog network as a priority and provide any safety gear that is required, helping them get back to delivering orders and earning an income as quickly as possible.”
For more information on using Deliveroo’s vouchers, see here.
