The whole on-demand space has faced a lot of scrutiny in the past few years as questions about whether they are viable businesses balloon and the periodic down round leaks out. Then Instacart raised a massive round at a $3.4 billion valuation, and while the terms aren’t exactly clear, the funding environment for that space may be softening a bit.
That’s offered an opportunity for new companies to start to attract attention like Cornershop, a grocery-delivery app that operates in Chile and Mexico. The company raised $21 million in a financing round led by Accel as it starts to expand in that market — and potentially get ahead of looming competitors like Instacart. To a certain extent, however, CEO Oskar Hjertonsson may have Instacart’s up round to thank for some enthusiasm in the space as the model starts to creep abroad.
“The longer answer is that I think Instacart can build a profitable business in the US, as can we down here,” Hjertonsson said. “I think the general notion that ‘this and that service can’t exist’ is the wrong way of looking at it. I think it’s more a question of how to model the service for each market, including the positioning in terms of price/value, to build a…