Grovara is cementing its global natural food wholesaling footprint with expansions in Mexico and the Middle East.
Calling from a trade show in Dubai, Grovara CEO Abu Kamara said Wednesday that his startup is hiring employees internationally and in Philadelphia as it seeks to raise a $5 million bridge funding round.
Philadelphia-based Grovara connects organic and natural food companies in the U.S. with distributors around the world. The startup sells organic and natural food brands like Waterloo Sparkling Water, True Citrus, Lesser Evil, Chickapea and That’s It. The company was founded in 2011.
Grovara has quickly grown in the last year with online sales up 75% year over year, according to the company. Kamara declined to share revenue figures.
Latin America and Mexico have played significant roles in Grovara’s expansion, accounting for 40% of sales last year, the company said. Grovara is now moving farther into Mexico with a new office planned for Mexico City. The startup has also hired five new employees in Mexico to tackle the Latin American market, bringing its employee count there to seven.
Mexico serves as a regional hub for global trade, and the country has a hefty demand for U.S. brands, Kamara said. Mexico’s middle class is also growing, according to a report from intergovernmental group Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation, which opens up opportunities for brands to reach consumers, he said. Many retailers and distributors have headquarters in Mexico City, making the city an ideal base for the company's growth in the region.
“That’s the reason it’s the right market for the products the U.S. has,” Kamara said.
Grovara is also extending its reach to the Middle East as the business scales up.
Grovara is hiring a sales representative as soon as possible to kickstart business in Dubai, and the startup is looking to add more sales staff there before the end of the year, Kamara said. Strategically, Dubai is one of the most important cities to add to Grovara’s business. It’s at the center of many logistics businesses, clients there have purchasing power and demand for U.S. products is high, Kamara said. Waiting another six months or a year to move into Dubai could cause Grovara to lose market share, he added.
“We have to be here,” Kamara said. “I feel in the near term that Dubai, the Gulf countries, really, as a region — that’s Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar — it’s going to be our most successful region for exporting.”
Grovara plans to continue hiring as it works to raise $5 million in bridge funding. The startup last raised a $5.5 million seed round in March 2021, and it’s eyeing a much larger Series A in 2023, Kamara said.
The startup has 27 employees, with one-third located in Philadelphia, and Kamara anticipates the company will have 40 employees by the end of the year. Hiring will be prioritized in sales positions, and the bridge round is expected to close in March.
The bridge round will also fund an initiative to bring Grovara’s payment system in-house and help integrate clients' purchasing systems.
“We’re really trying to blow this thing open and become the marketplace for U.S. brands to go global,” he said.
