Vivino is the world’s most downloaded mobile wine app and largest online wine marketplace.

Vivino’s community of 50 million wine enthusiasts have pushed annual growth at the online wine marketplace to 100% for the last seven years. With e-commerce sales of alcohol predicted to grow to over $40 billion by 2024, the future is rosy for Vivino. Investors have therefore readily plunked $155 million into the firm’s Series D funding round. (CISION PRNewswire)

The round, the company’s first since 2018, was led by Swedish based investment firm Kinnevik with Sprints Capital accompanying as a new investor. GP Bullhound and existing early-stage investor Creandum also participated.

The round brings Vivino’s total funding to $221 million. The round valued the wine platform between $600 million and $800 million according to Bloomberg.

Vivino is the wine light during the pandemic

Bloomberg also revealed that Vivino broke even for the first time in 2020.

Shelter-in-place restrictions, lockdowns, and shuttered bars and restaurants all drove people to drink at home. Result: Wine sales on the platform more than doubled during the year to $265 million.

Wine enthusiasts took advantage of the platform’s promise of personalized wine recommendations as well as a fun and accessible purchasing experience.

Over the longer term, there is a decided shift in favor of online purchasing, according to Heini Zachariassen, Vivino’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer.

“Our user retention rates are high, and we’re seeing a steady conversion of app users to wine buyers. That’s a good move in the right direction. By creating more value for our users, we also create more value for the company and industry at large,” he commented.

In testimony to that, Vivino’s user base has jumped from 29 million to 50 million since its Series C funding in February 2018.

Use of funds

Vivino will use the money to further improve its technology and artificial intelligence-based platform for enhancing its personalized recommendations to users. It also intends to expand its presence in high potential markets such as the US, Germany, the UK, Italy, Japan, and Portugal.

“The funding will enable us to continue to build on our core strengths, expand industry partnerships drawing more merchants and wineries to our marketplace, and support our continued global growth,” Zachariassen said.

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