Foxtrot picks up $17 million to reimagine the convenience store

Amidst the staggering rise of on-demand delivery services, the convenience store has been left relatively untouched. Until very recently.

Foxtrot, founded in 2013, is looking to reimagine the corner convenience store, offering customers the option to buy in-store or order online for delivery.

The company today announced the close of a $17 million growth round, co-led by Imaginary and Wittington Ventures, with investment from previous backers Fifth Wall, Lerer Hippeau, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, M3 Ventures, The University of Chicago, Collaborative VC and Wasson Enterprise, as well as new investors Bluestein Associates and Barshop Ventures.

Foxtrot offers a wide variety of products to customers, including craft beer and natural wines, familiar brands like Oreo and everyday goods like Bounty paper towels, as well as products under the Foxtrot label like sandwiches, prepped meals and coffee. It's an impressive mix of local, emerging and heritage brands all under one roof. In total, Foxtrot works with more than 100 vendors to supply customers with upwards of 800 different products.

Founder and CEO Mike LaVitola says that there is an even breakdown between Foxtrot's own products (coffee, sandwiches, gummy candies), emerging brands (Hims, MatchaBar, etc.) and staple products and brands (Bud Light and Oreo).

But the roof isn't necessarily all that important. Foxtrot offers on-demand delivery of its full product suite via an app. And moreover, Foxtrot's loyalty program offers free delivery for a month for folks who spent more than $100 (either in-store or online) last month at Foxtrot.

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Foxtrot has stores in Dallas and Chicago, with plans to expand its footprint in those markets, as well as launch in D.C.

The company says it's experiencing 2x year-over-year revenue growth, with 150% YOY growth of its e-commerce customer base. Its revenue is split 50/50 between offline and online sales.

In terms of employment, the workers inside the store who pick and pack and serve offline customers are W2 employees. Couriers are contractors but are employed directly by Foxtrot based on the company's own best practices around on-demand delivery.

LaVitola identifies maintaining a cohesive experience across retail and online as one of the greatest challenges.

"They're fundamentally different," said LaVitola. "The things that make one successful are very different from the things that make the other side successful. Going forward, to be as successful as we've been in these first markets, we need to make sure that the customer is coming to us online and in the store, and that they feel that they're seeing the same brands and the same ecosystem."