London (September 2022) – DELLI, the new venture from Depop founder Simon Beckerman and the latest innovation in community-focused food and beverage, today announced a $7.2m capital raise. The funding was co-led by Balderton and HV Capital, two of Europe’s leading VCs investment firms. 

The app was created by Beckerman after spotting a shift in behaviour and trends within the world of food, in a manner similar to his observations of the fashion industry and subsequent creation of Depop. DELLI was created as a platform for the new generation of food makers in the UK. Marie Petrovicka, former VP of Markets at Depop, joined him as co-founder and COO earlier this year.

Much like Beckerman’s prediction of how Instagram would change our relationship to social interaction, and Depop to fashion, Beckerman believes that our relationship to food is also changing. DELLI wants to inspire the next generation to express themselves with food and be seen at the forefront of all these side hustles and support young people finding new ways to experiment with food and showcase their creativity.

DELLI is fast becoming the go-to place for those who want to tap into new food trends. It uses the “drop” model seen in fashion to sell products (where a limited amount of a new product is released at a set time) — this mechanic helps build excitement around each product, but also importantly to DELLI’s mission – combats obstacles small producers can face like managing food waste, cash and ingredient flow. By supporting the small producers of this world, DELLI aims to change the broken food industry.

“I am really excited to announce DELLI’s $7.2M raise to further ignite growth and expand its offer to makers and consumers alike. DELLI’s success over the year, from the 200 makers already signed up to the app to units sold, highlights that there is space in the market for DELLI and a consumer desire for its service.” said Simon Beckerman. 

“We are excited to be backing DELLI for this next chapter, and to be working again with Simon and Marie. Simon has an extraordinary flair for spotting emerging trends and building markets and communities around them. Marie is an operator extraordinaire, making them a formidable founding team. DELLI democratises food production and brings diversity of choice of local produce to consumers. We are looking forward to the journey ahead.” said Daniel Waterhouse, Partner at Balderton Capital who led the investment.

ENDS 

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Notes to Editors

DELLI team

Simon Beckerman

Born and raised in Milan, Simon Beckerman is the brains behind several successful creative businesses. In 1998, together with his brother Daniel, he launched a creative agency specialising in web design and brand identity. In 2001 they founded a fashion, music and lifestyle magazine – People In Groove (PIG) – which immediately became the “trendsetter bible” for those gravitating within the Italian fashion scene. In 2007 they launched Retrosuperfuture, the *must have* sunglasses brand. It was an immediate success. In just one year they were endorsed by the likes of the world’s most influential music and entertainment personalities such as Lady Gaga, Beyonceì, Rihanna, David Beckham, Kanye West, Daft Punk. In 2011 – this time on his own – Simon founded Depop, a mobile social marketplace targeted for the new generation of savvy social media users. In just a few years, Depop has become a point of reference for young adults aged between 14 to 25 years old. Currently headquartered in London, over the years Depop has raised 40 million, it has a team of 150 people, and its community can boast over 13 million users who upload over 100,000 items a day. Depop also has offices in New York, Sydney,and Manchester.

Marie Petrovicka

Marie Petrovicka was born and raised in the Czech Republic. Marie started her career at the Boston Consulting Group. In 2017, she joined Depop as a Chief of Staff and went on to run all things go to market performance related – from strategy to execution. She relaunched the US market, which grew over ten times during her tenure, added Australia and Europe and in the end included the UK in her portfolio. As the COO at DELLI, she is taking care of the operational and growth side of the business. Marie studied Financial Economics at Oxford and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where she graduated as a Baker Scholar.

Natalie Lee Joe

Natalie Lee Joe is a strategist and creative, Natalie was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. Her experience spans across various digital and creative agencies such as Mediacom, Holler and Saatchi & Saatchi London, delivering both strategic planning work as well as creative concepts for clients including Red Bull, Channel 4, HSBC and Mars. Looking for a new challenge in 2015 she quit advertising to pursue her lifelong dream of owning a restaurant. In 2015 she opened Jidori, a yakitori restaurant and bar in Dalston and quickly followed with a second in Covent Garden. The restaurant was met with a great response from the likes of Wallpaper, Vogue, Time Out, Evening Standard and many more whilst being included on many yearly lists of best restaurants and dishes. Natalie now leads the DELLI brand, marketing, editorial and community team – combining her passions for food, brands and community.

Nebil Kriedi

Nebil Kriedi started as Depop’s original developer in 2012. Nebil is a specialist on native iOS app development, with full stack experience. Started the Depop project and eventually became Mobile Lead, supporting the company throughout the transition from a small startup to a unicorn company.

About Balderton Capital

Balderton Capital is a leading venture firm focused on backing the best European-founded technology companies. In the two decades since its founding, Balderton has worked with hundreds of extraordinary founders and raised $4.5bn across ten funds to support businesses at both early and growth stage. Previous investments include Depop (Etsy), Digital Surgery (Medtronic), Frontier Car Group (OLX Group), Flywire (NASDAQ: FLYW), Nutmeg (JPMorgan Chase), Peakon (Workday), Recorded Future (Insight Partners), Sunrise (Microsoft), Talend (NASDAQ: TLND) and Yoox Net-a-Porter (BIT: YNAP). Balderton’s current portfolio includes: Aircall, Beauty Pie, Carwow, Citymapper, Contentful, ComplyAdvantage,  Darktrace (LSE: DARK), Dream Games, GoCardless, Graphcore, Healx, Infarm, Kobalt Music, Labster, Lendable, Prodigy Finance, Revolut, Sophia Genetics (NASDAQ:SOPH), Tessian, THG (LSE: THG), VanMoof, Vestiaire Collective and Zego.