A Philadelphia startup is using a rebrand and a growth-heavy 2022 as a springboard to more than double its national presence this year as it broadens its offerings.
Lula Convenience, previously known as Lula Delivery, was founded to connect convenience stores and bodegas with the ability to deliver products through existing platforms like DoorDash, GrubHub and Uber Eats. But now CEO Adit Gupta has his sights set on being a comprehensive retail platform that can be a tool for the entire convenience industry and supply chain — from distributors to manufacturers to major brands and of course, convenience stores themselves.
About a year after raising a $5.5 million seed round, Gupta has ambitious growth goals for Lula. They include adding partnerships with national chains, new software offerings for convenience stores and expanding its geographic footprint. At the start of 2022, Lula's technology was in about 150 stores, a number that ballooned some 566% by the end of the calendar year to approximately 1,000 across all 50 states, according to Gupta. By the end of 2023, he is aiming to be in 2,000 to 3,000 stores as the firm continues to develop and grow its technology.
"What we’ve found is we're really so much more than just a delivery enablement solution," said Gupta, who founded Lula along with fellow Drexel University alum Tom Falzani amid the pandemic.
As part of its growth, Lula has added a 24/7 customer success team to troubleshoot any problems convenience stores have with the delivery service. It is also readying to launch Lula Smart Marketing that would allow stores to market across all e-commerce sites through Lula with one portal. The company's technology also gives insight and tracks inventory at stores across a given chain, or at an individual store.
Lula worked with Kellogg's in 2022, using its technology to help the food manufacturing giant known for cereals like Corn Flakes and Apple Jacks pinpoint which stores to advertise in and where specific products would perform well. Gupta sees similar opportunities to help brands market their products in convenience stores down the line.
By adding services onto the original business model, Gupta said Lula's technology touches the consumer brand, the distributor, the convenience store and the at-home customer.
"That's kind of the longer term vision, that we're becoming the ecosystem for the convenience industry in the U.S.," Gupta said. "We think we can build this true business in a box experience for every business owner in the country."
Lula closed 2022 with over 20 partnerships after starting the year with just a couple, according to Gupta. Many of those partnerships allow Lula to easily integrate with existing point-of-sale systems, allowing inventory at convenience stores to immediately translate to delivery apps.
On Monday, the company announced a partnership to integrate its technology with Gilbarco Passport Retail Platform, a point-of-sale system provider that is used by 44,000 convenience stores in the country. Lula's technology will integrate onto the Passport platform to automate inventory counts across delivery channels.
Gupta's goal is to partner with every major convenience store distributor in the country. Such partnerships would allow Lula access to thousands of more stores to implement its technology.
Lula's "sweet spot is mid-market chains," Gupta said, noting that already Lula has partnered with convenience store distributors including Jacksons Food Stores, Sandri Energy, Jack's Convenience Stores and U-Stop Convenience Shops.
These relationships, with more in the works, have Gupta and his team of 35 bullish on the future.
"We're doing this for the [convenience] store owner, [convenience] store owners around the country that don't have a lot of tech to work with," Gupta said.
After all, that's what got the company started in the first place. Gupta and Falzani founded the company when Gupta's parents' convenience store was forced to shut down amid the pandemic with limited ways to reach their customers.
