Black-Owned Grocery Tech Startup Raises $22M Series B To Advance Autonomous Supermarkets
Black-owned AI grocery startup Vori has raised $22 million in a series B round led by Cherryrock Capital, led by former TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot, according to Fortune. Brandon Hill launched the company in 2024, with a family history in groceries. His grandparents ran a small store in Oklahoma, and his parents worked in a grocery store during their early career years. His mother currently works at Vori.
When Hill visited his parents in Minnesota in 2020, he saw how they were still using paper invoices and wholesale catalogs. This birthed the idea for Vori.
What does Vori do?
Vori’s system processes payments, creates purchase orders, tracks inventory, and helps shoppers decide what groceries to reorder. It has processed over $500 million in payments across 55 cities and served more than 1 million consumers since its launch. Hill says the payments account for nearly 60% to 70% of revenue, helping keep the cost of software and hardware low for stores already paying payment processors.
Series B round
The Series B round follows a $10 million Series A round in 2022, led by The Factory. The new capital will continue to support Vori in bringing AI to an industry that relies heavily on paper invoices, fax machines, and payment tools.
“Our mission is to power grocery stores with the technology to run more profitably and increase the GDP of Main Street. We’re just getting started (and we’re hiring),” Hill wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Image: Carolyn Fong
