By
Godfrey Benjamin
August 22nd, 2022
Companies backed by Dastore will undoubtedly receive a massive competitive advantage as they will gain access to all the know-how of seasoned investors at Daphni, alongside the industrial capabilities and global reach of Carrefour.
Istanbul Turkey-based supermarket company CarrefourSA Carrefour Sabnc Tic Mei AS (IST: CRFSA) has partnered with European venture capital firm, Daphni to launch a new venture firm dubbed Dastore. As announced by the supermarket chain, the new venture firm will invest as much as €80 million ($88 million) “by taking minority stakes in high potential emerging startups in France and globally to allow the Group to stay close to innovations and emerging technologies.”
The establishment of the new venture startup is aligned with Carrefour’s long-term growth strategy to transform its operations into a digital economy, one that is hard to match in the retail world. In line with this strategy, the company has committed to spending as much as €3 billion on its digital expansion plans between 2022 and 2026 as unveiled last November per a Reuters report.
It is not uncommon to find retail supermarket chains double down on their growth strategies with new innovations in the tech and digital ecosystem respectively. While many are heavily invested in new technologies already, Carrefour hopes that with its new pursuits, it can start giving Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) the right competition the American e-commerce giant deserves.
“Launching this venture capital vehicle is a huge milestone in our innovation strategy and illustrates our willingness to further develop the links we have with the startup ecosystem. Investing in startups is an opportunity for Carrefour to speed up its own digital transformation, while at the same time helping early stage companies to grow faster. We have therefore opted for an unprecedented investment fund model in the retail space and are delighted to start this adventure alongside seasoned and well-known investors such as daphni”, said Elodie Perthuisot, Carrefour Group’s Executive Director of E-Commerce, Data, and Digital Transformation.
Carrefour and Daphi to Give Dastore Startups a Good Edge
Companies backed by Dastore will undoubtedly receive a massive competitive advantage as they will gain access to all the know-how of seasoned investors at Daphni, alongside the industrial capabilities and global reach of Carrefour. This is to say that the beneficiaries of the Dastore funding will receive a lot of additional post-funding support that will help amplify their business models towards attaining success.
The $88 million funds will be invested in startups that check the mark for Carrefour’s focused business areas including but not limited to new e-commerce businesses, data and digital tools for operations and financial services in retail as well as logistics and supply chain new capabilities.
The creation of the venture fund startup is not a new move amongst big corporations, as many are beginning to explore avenues to become a part of the growth of new innovative startups, especially such as are related to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), the emerging metaverse world and Web3.0 respectively.
While not expressly stated that Dastore will invest directly in crypto-related startups, related moves may not come as a surprise as many traditional companies are notably pioneering the move into the Web3.0 ecosystem in a bid to become a part of the projected growth future. That Carrefour has an active involvement in pioneering blockchain tracking solutions also makes the likelihood of investing in blockchain startups very high.
