The speedy grocery industry has boomed in 2021. Now the next frontier of super-fast delivery is here: medicines to your door in 30 minutes.
German medicine delivery company Mayd is launching in Berlin today, and has raised a $15m seed round from 468 Capital, Earlybird and Target Global to help expand to more cities.
Mayd’s app will allow customers to order pharmacy products to their homes, delivered on ebikes. It will start with non-prescription products, before moving to prescription medicines in January once a regulatory change in Germany goes into effect.
Although companies like Glovo and Deliveroo already deliver non-prescription products, Mayd says that after January it’ll be the first in Europe to offer instant prescription delivery.
The era of uber convenience
This new evolution of speedy delivery comes as VCs continue to pump millions into Europe’s instant delivery grocery companies. Although Mayd says it’s not aiming to be as quick as some of those — startups like Gorillas and Getir offer 10 minute delivery — it is riding the same pandemic-induced ecommerce boom.
“When you look at what’s happened over the last year, with quick commerce and new delivery models really soaring and changing lives, we thought, why is that not the case for medication?” says Hanno Heintzenberg, Mayd’s cofounder.
The model is slightly different from the grocery play, however. Instant grocery companies operate their own warehouses, whereas Mayd will deliver directly from pharmacies. Mayd's riders will be directly employed by the company.
At present there’s no delivery fee for the customer, but the pharmacies pay a fee for being on the platform.
Painkillers and primer
From today, customers will be able to order non-prescription items like painkillers and cough treatments, along with beauty products.
From January 22, the way prescriptions are administered in Germany will change — people will be able to validate them online, as well as in person — opening up the opportunity for Mayd to deliver prescribed medications too.
Heintzenberg says the target audience is new parents.
“We are specifically focusing on young families now because we think the use case is the best here, especially young mothers or fathers who need to go to the pharmacy quite often.”
After Berlin, the company’s aiming to move into four more German cities by the end of 2022, and is looking to expand into other European countries soon.
