Buymie chooses Bristol for UK headquarters and launches fundraising

One of Ireland's fastest-growing start-ups has chosen Bristol as its UK headquarters as it launches a new fundraising.

Buymie, a grocery-on-demand service, is the only same-day provider with a team of personal shoppers delivering from Tesco, ASDA and the Co-op. The business, which has enjoyed a 500% year-on-year growth rate, has developed a unique algorithm called Jarvis to automate customer and shopper user experience selecting from thousands of brands, with the ability to change up to six items once the order has been placed.

Buymie is Ireland’s largest same day grocery delivery service and has been named one of the top 100 tech companies to watch in the world. Launched in 2015, it has raised over €10m in funding to date.

Following a successful launch in Bristol, buymie is continuing expansion across the city ahead of a UK rollout. The Irish tech start-up is led by founder and entrepreneur Devan Hughes (no relation) who is now leading a multi million pound investment round to drive growth and technological development as more consumers flock to the app. Buymie is also increasing its use of electric vehicles with branded Teslas and cargo electric bikes shortly to be seen on the city’s roads.

Kevin Hughes (no relation), Chief Product Officer (CPO) at buymie, said: “Looking to the next 18 months or so, we are now embracing machine learning but with a difference. For us it is not about introducing robots, it is about how we can combine human thinking and interactions with new ways of training data, specifically to automate predictions and forecasts in spite of all the variables this has. Critically, we are also looking at how this can improve sustainability in driving down emissions and waste levels. Becoming carbon efficient is a key goal for buymie with our tech development a significant enabler to reach our target.”