Technology that Empowers Society (a.k.a., Why I’m investing in Devo) 🕊️
Our next investment is Devo, an operating system for convenience stores.
Maybe your already thinking another grocery delivery app?
Well, it is time to dig a little deeper.
Stay in Your Lane (Or not…)
Something I keep in mind when angel investing is something an occasional mentor of sorts Adrian Weller told me about his own angel investing in an off the cuff conversation one morning at the Alan Turing Institute:
“You should only invest in the startups that you can’t not invest in.”
This may seem obvious, and despite being a double negative, it really captures the idea of being very selective about which deals to invest not only capital, but much more importantly, time into — the one thing we will never get back.
I am trying to remain disciplined in my angel investing but this isn’t my usual “deep tech” type of investment. Similar to my dip into consumer and social apps with Outside (see blog post) this decision was driven by the calibre, drive and clear vision of the founder.
Sam is an incredibly hard working founder and built a great team around himself with minimal funding to date. He leads Devo’s team and they have built a lot already (POS software, online/app for deliveries, wholesale marketplace).
The company wants to be the #1 operating system for convenience stores worldwide:
A Different Economic Model
I know many of you will have questions about this market — e.g., What about Gorillas or Amazon Fresh?
After learning more from the team and my own research this is a great market opportunity with 1M+ convenience stores worldwide and $2.1T in global consumer spend.
Devo’s online service launched in 2020, and with minimal marketing spend they were able to successfully complete over 14,000 orders and generate more than £300,000 in gross sales.
After launching in one convenience store, the service spread through word of mouth (60% referral) among shop owners who loved Devo’s solution.
From the ease of onboarding thousands of items in only 30 minutes; to the simplicity of managing large inventories; and a clear value-based pricing model.
The company has been bootstrapped to date and now 50+ convenience stores are already using Devo — some owners have even decided to invest in the company — other investors in this round include Octopus Ventures, Everywhere Ventures from and a host of angels including operators from Quandoo, Addison Lee and a former Managing Director of Techstars.
Devo offers an economic model for powering shop owners unlike those venture funded businesses which seek to replace them. This is the kind of future I want to live in where all people apart or economic gains and prosperity — rather than a few greedy capitalists playing delivery wars with their “dark stores” and billions in venture capital funding for unsustainable business models.
Founders Backing Founders
Sam impressed me the first time I saw him playing basketball drive to the hoop and score against my friend Dan — another startup founder and now angel investor in Devo — he then continued to drain three pointers from all over the court!
After work basketball is definitely a non-traditional source of deal flow, but actually seeing someone play sports can tell you a lot about their intrinsic drive and motivation.
Sam works as hard as any founder I’ve met in the last 10 + years of angel investing and I’m looking forward to watching him grow as an entrepreneur and be successful in the grocery and convenience market over the coming years as he builds out his vision for Devo.
You can check out Devo’s grocery delivery app on the App Store and Google Play Store. If you’re a grocery store owner then check out their website — https://devo.co.uk/
If your interested in investing in companies like Devo as part of Kintsugi’s angel syndicate then get in touch via our website — https://kintsugi.vc/
