Carrefour, the largest food retailer in Europe, announced its partnership with venture capital firm Daphni to invest in digital retail startups as part of a global plan to step up e-commerce expansion over the next four years.
Their venture capital fund, Dastore, will initially invest 80 million euros ($88 million) by taking minority stakes in high-potential emerging startups in France and globally.
Last November Carrefour pledged to spend 3 billion euros between 2022 and 2026 to step up digital expansion, as part of the group’s strategy to stay ahead of Amazon on grocery deliveries and accelerate its turnaround.
“Launching this venture capital vehicle is a huge milestone in our innovation strategy and illustrates our willingness to further develop the links we have with the startup ecosystem. Investing in startups is an opportunity for Carrefour to speed up its own digital transformation,” said Elodie Perthuisot, Carrefour Group’s Executive Director of E-Commerce, Data and Digital Transformation.
“Dastore is perfectly in line with one of daphni’s strategic aims, which involves creating bridges between startups and corporates (in this case specifically, with Carrefour) in the area of digital retail,” said Marc Simoncini, Partner at daphni.
