After “dominating” the restaurant market, the iFood has focused efforts to grow in grocery shopping and has now announced a new move in that direction. A year and a half after becoming an investor, the company announced the purchase of a minority stake in ina shopping startup with ultra-fast delivery.
As reported by the iFood in a note sent to Startupsthe stake acquired is less than 5%, and the transaction values were not disclosed. The last valuation published by in it was in 2023, when it raised a Series D, with the startup valued at US$800 million. In 2021, the company was valued as a unicorn, with a valuation of US$1.2 billion.
The entrance to the iFood no captable and in is an evolution of an operational partnership initiated by the two companies in 2024, when the iFood “plugged” the grocery shopping startup into its ecosystem, using the company’s dark store network in to offer products with fast delivery.
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It was a partnership similar to the one the iFood did at the time with the Shopperand which also yielded, in the future, an even stronger alliance. It is worth remembering that, in November 2024, the iFood led a R$150 million round in Shoppertogether with the Singapore Sovereign Fund (GIC) and Minerva.
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Daki in acceleration
As highlighted by the founders of inRodrigo Maroja, Alex Bretzner and Rafael Vasto, the channel iFood represents an incremental demand for the company, complementing the startup’s own channel, which still accounts for the majority of the company’s sales. With the investment, the company intends to accelerate its expansion beyond São Paulo and Minas Gerais, with the opening of new hubs in 2026.
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On the financial side, the founders of in also celebrate a positive moment: according to them, the company is close to reaching R$1 billion in annualized revenue, is growing at more than 50% per year and recently reached breakeven.
According to Rafael, this result comes from five years of building a vertically integrated logistics chain, from direct purchase with suppliers to delivery to the end customer.
“The future of the supermarket will be defined by whoever masters the digital infrastructure, with a logistics chain designed for online and a native AI technology and data platform. in built this infrastructure, is growing at a fast pace and is already operating at breakeven. This investment marks a new phase for the company and accelerates the digitalization of Brazilian food retail”, says Rafael Vasto.
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Focusing on markets
The strengthening of the partnership with in shows that the iFood remains very interested in dominating the online supermarket shopping segment, extending “its tentacles” beyond restaurants, a segment in which it dominates most of the market share, but has seen competition increase with names such as 99Food e Boil.
It is not the first time that the iFood tries to accelerate in the online supermarket, an arena that became quite profitable during the pandemic years, with names that are now “dead”, such as Cornershop (da Uber)but had a hard time after the end of social isolation. Meanwhile, with a focus on fast and convenience deliveries, names like in e Rap managed to maintain themselves.
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In 2022, the iFood it even took a “step back” in its plans, discontinuing most of its internal supermarket delivery operation, in a decision aimed at optimizing costs. In Rio de Janeiro, for example, the company sold its dark store structure to the group Cencosud.
However, shortly afterwards, the reassembly began through partnerships, bringing in names like Justo, Shopper e Daki into your platform. Since then, the iFood has been expanding its operations, and the platform’s market vertical grew 60% in sales volume between March 2025 and March 2026, adding almost 3 thousand new partner stores and expanding its presence to all states in the country.
However, as highlighted by the iFood In a note, the plan is to continue acting as a neutral marketplace, focused on generating demand and developing logistics solutions for partners connected to the platform. It is a different proposal from the Rapwhich also invests in its own dark stores and logistics to guarantee its standard of speed in deliveries.
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“Our strategy for the ecosystem remains the same: iFood does not act in the purchase or storage of products. Our focus is to evolve technology, logistics and distribution intelligence to connect consumers, retailers and wholesalers in a transparent and impartial way”, says Arthur Lima, Market Director at iFood.
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