OVO, a Ukrainian delivery service of fruits and vegetables, has raised $150,000 pre-seed investment from TA Ventures and private ICLUB’s investors, the firm told AIN.UA. OVO confirmed the deal to Vector.

It is reported that the deal took place back in 2020. The funds will be used for further development of OVO – the startup plans to become the market leader in fresh fruit and vegetable delivery by the end of 2021. Moreover, the company plans to raise another round of investment by the end of March. The company plans to spend it, in particular, on launching five “dark stores” in Kyiv.

According to OVO co-founder Roman Melkumov, initially, the company did not plan to raise funds:

“We launched the service in the midst of quarantine and were developing it with working capital. Since the business was profitable from the first day, we thought about a business loan, but we met Andriy Fedoriv, and he offered to become a partner in our company.”

“OVO and Liki24 prove that even the crisis doesn’t keep good companies from raising investments. These two startups aroused the most interest from investors within our club, which is an indicator of demand for Ukrainian products among local investors,” commented Igor Pertsiya, ICLUB Managing Partner.

About OVO

  • OVO is a service for ordering and delivering fruits and vegetables in Kyiv and within 25 kilometers of the city.
  • The service was initially called Kyiv Vegetables and was created by Roman Melkumov and Stepan Zinyakov on April 22, 2020, when quarantine restrictions were already in effect in Ukraine.
  • Roman and Stepan did market research, calculated several business models, and launched the MVP of the service in 2 weeks with a $55 investment.
  • In October 2020, the startup secured an angel investment from Fedoriv Group. The funds were used to build a new brand (OVO), restart the IT infrastructure, and launch a large-scale advertising campaign.

“There are several problems with buying fruits and vegetables in the grocery store: the product range is more limited than in a warehouse, visitors touch the products with their hands, and the selection process takes a lot of time. OVO offers to deliver fruits, vegetables, and related products to a doorstep in 60 minutes,” the company says.