During the pandemic Cortilia, a startup that sells artisanal and fresh food products online, did something apparently absurd: faced with the explosion in the number of customers, five times higher than its capacity, it put a ceiling on receipts, limiting purchases to satisfy the greatest number of people. It is exactly the opposite of what an entrepreneur should do in a similar case, but the founder Marco Porcaro he never had any doubts: “We gave up on easy money to affirm our values. It is this attitude that has allowed us to attract the talents that have enabled us to overcome the deadly challenges of the pandemic”.
Cortilia closed 2020 with a 175% growth, 33 million euros in turnover, and celebrating the conversion from the srl into a benefit company, a legal form of business intended for companies that, in addition to their business, also voluntarily pursue purposes of common benefit. . The explosion of requests, often coming from people who had never done their shopping online, such as an 85-year-old whose thank you letter Porcaro keeps, forced Cortilia to halve the products available and upset its offer, canceling ready meals, but without cutting orders entirely. The products purchased to guarantee the activity of the producers with whom Cortilia closely collaborates were donated to the Civil Hospitals of Brescia, where the epidemic was raging and the canteens were closed. “For the new generations, being consistent is essential: you do not attract talents if you are not clear about what you want to do and above all how you want to do it” says Porcaro, who through the sharing of values has created that team that stands out in the background of our video call. He is missing, because he is the one who takes the picture. “The most important thing I learned doing startups is to choose people not on the basis of their skills, but on the basis of sharing certain values. It is from values that the ability to be disruptive in difficult moments “.
One who shares the same values with Porcaro is Renzo Rosso, founder of Diesel, who has been on the board of directors of the company since January, born in 2012 with the idea of being “the eBay of the zucchini” and evolved to become an online supermarket of sustainability. Rosso invested in Cortilia last March through Red Circle Investments in a round worth a total of 34 million euros, which brought the company’s value to around 200 million euros, according to Dealroom. “The way he pushes in the direction of sustainability is amazing, and he also offers us an important help in technical decisions” reveals Porcaro.
Cortilia today operates in Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont, where home delivery in 24 hours is no longer just fruit and vegetables, but foods and products of all kinds, rigorously selected and collected directly from the producers. Since 2018, everything is supported by artificial intelligence algorithms that predict sales, thus helping the company to order only the necessary and support producers in planning the work.. The unsold, today in the order of one percent, is delivered to associations that offer meals to those who cannot afford them. In 2021 Cortilia aims to cover the North-East and reach Rome. Then the rest of Italy, a 118 billion euro market that took note of ecommerce during the pandemic. After, finally, the expansion abroad. “We have come a long way, but in a certain sense we are still at the beginning” says Porcaro, who a few days ago announced a new line of products “Discovered by Cortilia for you”. “The food market is evolving in two directions: that of price and that of the product. We have chosen the latter”. The Cortilia team, in addition to working on artificial intelligence that optimizes the experience within the site and the activity of warehouses and distribution, works closely with producers, helping them, among other things, to innovate their recipes, limit waste, and study innovative bio-sustainable packaging. “I believe that in 2021 every startup should be a benefit company – says Porcaro – To grow at a certain pace you need to have talents available who are happy with what they do and in young people the attention to sustainability and certain values is very strong”. As for other claims Simon Beckerman, founder of the recent unicorn Depop, an app in which users exchange vintage garments.
From 2012 to 2021 Cortilia collected a total of about fifteen million euros in six rounds with dpixel, Boox, P101, Five Seasons and Indaco, which also participated in the last round. Looking back, Porcaro regrets not having worked on a bigger investment from the start: “It’s like riding a car, better stop once and fill up”. In his defense there is the fact that until a few years ago there were few who invested in food ecommerce, while now it is a rapidly growing market. “In recent years I have learned that you must always hire people who are two steps ahead of what you are doing, otherwise when you have to grow you will not be prepared”. And now we run, but with attention because going fast is always dangerous: “You have to make choices oriented to the future and not to the present. You have to give the people of your team perspective, show ambition and ask for it, because only by thinking in this perspective are you in a position to able to make choices that do not undermine the survival of your project “.
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