Robomart, a company that brings a variety of storefronts to your doorstep, will open a new East Coast headquarters in Baltimore.
Unlike services such as DoorDash or Gopuff, which deliver specific pre-ordered goods to your door, Robomart sends a van outfitted with a miniature store of products from a specific retailer to your door.
Intended to feature zero human interaction, after the van pulls up, the customer then opens the door through an app and can grab whatever items they want from that retailer from shelves inside the van. Each item has a smart barcode tag on each item so the company can track what an individual purchased without a customer even needing to check out their purchase.
The West Hollywood company plans to start Robomart service in Baltimore in 2023. Their East Coast hub will be located at the W Ventures office in Mt. Washington.
The company will hire data scientists and marketing staff in Baltimore in preparation for the launch. Currently, CEO Ali Ahmed said the Santa Monica company is set to deploy 96 vans with six corporate partners. The company currently focuses on snacks, ice cream and meals from restaurants.
Ahmed plans to target busy parents who would benefit the most from the convenience of Robomart.
Along with the Baltimore expansion, the company is currently in the process of raising a $4 million seed round.
The company plans to move to a fully electric vehicle fleet and hopes to move to driverless vehicles when regulations allow it.
Another future plan for the company is produce vans, so the system could target food deserts where access to fresh fruit and vegetables is limited. Investor David Warschawski, the founder of W Ventures, said he is working with government officials to allow customers to use EBT funding for a produce Robomart, so it could be an alternative to grocery stores in areas without access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
Consumers are charged a single hailing fee for every transaction and merchants are charged a monthly fee but keep 100% of the revenues. Ahmed said Robomart can net $1,500 per month per van.
"People are paying upwards of $12 for DoorDash and some of the other delivery platforms," Ahmed said. "People do value convenience and we give you another option that's cheaper than delivery."
Ahmed uses a neighborhood-focused model, ensuring no Robomart operates farther than eight minutes from a restocking station, to keep delivery times fast. In a beta test, the Robomart averaged 10 minutes per order.
Warschawski pointed to Robomart’s ownership of patents that prevents other companies from removing the pre-order process from online delivery and from having a similar checkout-free system as a key reason for his choice to invest in the startup.
“A lot of people have a great idea but they don’t have the IP to back it up,” Warchawski said.
