On Monday, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe announced that Basket, a 9-person D.C.-based e-commerce startup, would be relocating to Arlington, Va. The move, McAuliffe explained at a private press conference in the company's new Clarendon office, shows how the commonwealth is becoming a hub for innovative companies as it also follows the expansion of San Francisco-based Shift Technologies into Virginia less than one month ago.
Basket plans to bring roughly 60 full-time tech jobs to Arlington County within 3 years and will soon look to raise capital from private investors, CEO/co-founder Neil Kataria told DC Inno.
Kataria co-founded Basket with Andy Ellwood, who acts as President for the company, a former senior director of business development at car navigation software company Waze. For reference, Kataria previously founded D.C.-based social media data analytics firm New Brand Analytics, which was acquired by Sprinklr for an undisclosed fee last year. And he is also the chairman and a founding partner at Blue Tiger Ventures, a local angel investment group.
McAuliffe approved a $125,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund, which will be matched by Arlington County, to help streamline Basket's relocation efforts.
"Our commitment to diversify Arlington’s economy by becoming a hub for disruptive technology companies is paying off with companies like Basket. The arrival and success of companies like Basket here in Arlington will play a key role as we work to improve Arlington’s vacancy rate and become a technology leader in the nation," said Victor Hoskins, director of Arlington Economic Development (AED), in a statement.
Basket plans to launch a finalized version of their mobile application, available for iPhone and Android, in several weeks. At the moment, a free beta-version of the program is available in the Apple App store.
"The arrival and success of companies like Basket here in Arlington will play a key role as we work to improve Arlington’s vacancy rate"
The Basket app offers a consumer-centric platform to crowdsource information related to the costs of products in grocery stores so that people can save money. In much the same way that Waze crowdsources information to notify users of a police speed trap positioned up the road, among other things, Basket hopes to leverage a large and active user base to provide people with realtime pricing information across multiple stores in a given area, said Ellwood. As a result, these shoppers can make more informed decision on where they buy groceries.
Basket's business model will be supported by three separate revenue streams: 1.) they will partner with checkout/payment services and pull a small fee on every purchase; 2.) Basket will work through affiliate partnerships with specific grocery stores; and 3.) in the future, Basket plans to partner with grocery delivery startups, acting as an auxiliary tool/feature for shoppers on another company's native platform.
Kataria said that the Basket app is already in the Apple App Store, originally launched in January, because the company is collecting early user feedback to produce a more refined product. He explained that Basket already boasts about 50,000 "testers." Meanwhile, Ellwood explained that the average Basket user will save about $1,000 dollars on grocery purchases because of information provided through the Basket app. He did not specify a timeframe for these accrued saving.
Ellwood also told DC Inno that Basket has been in touch with at least one large supermarket chain about their platform, though he declined to specify which one. "Their chief information officer told us 'I can't tell whether to consider you as an opportunity or a threat,'" Ellwood laughed. "But any time you have a $100 billion company saying that you're a threat, you think you might be on to something."
