Watch: Greek Man Creates ‘Digital Version’ Of Mother To Help Save Money On Groceries
Shark Tank Malta has financed Cheap Trolley, a platform which intends to become a one-stop-shop for all your food needs – and could save users 50% on their groceries.
“I’ve been living in Malta since 2015 and I have noticed the continuous price increase in supermarkets. Unfortunately people’s salaries are not increasing in the same way,” said Emmanouil Chountasis, the developer and founder of Cheap Trolley.
“My mission is to help people of lower income – and the rest, of course – to reduce their expenses on their weekly or monthly shopping list.”
In pursuit of this goal, Chountasis developed a website bringing together pricing data from across Malta’s grocery stores.
“If someone visits our website we can help him identify which supermarket can offer him the lower prices for those items,” he said.
“But we didn’t stop there. We intend to create a service which can purchase the cheapest products of your selected brands from different supermarkets – and deliver them to you.”
Chountasis was looking for €150,000 for 15% equity in his company, stating he would use these funds to build a supply chain capable of facilitating orders, collection and home deliveries – which pose a significant logistical challenge.
Although Cheap Trolley has not yet made any money, Chountasis believes that the platform can be monetised in several other ways – beyond deliveries.
“I have created the advertisement model where anyone who owns a supermarket and has a specific offer or wants to boost a product can come on our website and advertise for a very low cost.”
Beyond this, he is interested in “expanding the market,” into electronics and other product categories – before eventually spreading his reach and, “going to other countries,” after proving the concept’s sustainability in Malta.
Cheap Trolley has automated data collection from 18 supermarkets in Malta – but can currently only be used for price-matching – not for ordering groceries for delivery.
They have not yet invested in marketing, but through word of mouth alone have managed to wrangle an impressive 50,000 unique monthly visitors – including 600 registered users.
Alex Fenech was the first to comment on Chountasis’ pitch.
“What you’re trying to do here is create a digital version of my mother. My mother knows the prices of every product available in every supermarket.”
Despite this familiarity, Fenech felt that the logistical challenges facing Cheap Trolley were too complex for the business to be profitable.
Chris Vassallo disagreed and was keen to make an offer, stating he could use his pre-existing connection to help Cheap Trolley grow.
“I have some exposure to supermarkets because they rent from me, so I can see their relationships and how to go about it. There are some other things I’m doing in the food retail space, which completely align – so I’m looking at buying 50% of your business for €100,000.”
Chountasis countered by asking for €250,000 for 50% of his company, which Vassallo met by matching the original pitch for a much larger share. They eventually settled on a deal at €150,000 for 50%.
With this deal in the books, Vassallo has more than tripled the nearest Shark’s investments from this season – with a grand total of €305,000 invested by the development tycoon.
Once the deal was struck, Vassallo explained to the other Sharks why he had been so keen to invest.
“With their URL, I can grow to any other English-speaking market in the world, and he has created a technology that picks up prices automatically”.
Vassallo added in closing, “Chountasis thinks you need all 616 grocers in Malta… you don’t. You just need the good boys, the big ones to come in and do it, that’s volume.”
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