Hyperlocal delivery service provider Grofers has shut down its services in 9 cities citing low acceptance, reports the Mint. The company had expanded to these Tier II cities, including Ludhiana, Bhopal, Kochi, Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam in September 2015. Grofers will now operate in 17 cities. The company told MediaNama that it felt that some of the smaller cities were not ready for the hyperlocal business yet. It added that the respective city teams, totalling to 20-30 people, have been absorbed and employed in different cities. The company mentions that it ran a series of marketing campaigns including TV ads to help pick up volumes in these cities, but had to shut down as these efforts didn’t work. Grofers funding: In November, Grofers raised $120 million in a round of funding from SoftBank, Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner, with participation from existing investors Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital. Note that the company raised funding worth $35 million from Tiger Global Management and Sequoia Capital India in April, less than two months after it had raised series A funding of $10 million. It had also raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Sequoia and Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal. Acquisitions: In September Grofers acquired the B2B logistics service provider Townrush for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was essentially an acqui-hire with Townrush ceasing to exist as an independent company. Around the same time, Grofers also acqui-hired SpoonJoy for an undisclosed amount. In April, it acquired mobile grocery My Green Box. At the time, the…
