The latest news, trends, analysis, interviews and podcasts from the global food and beverage industry

Vivino – an online wine marketplace and app – has raised $155 million in Series D funding to support its expansion and investment into smarter artificial intelligence (AI).

The Series D round was led by Swedish investment firm Kinnevik with Sprints Capital accompanying as a new investor. Other participants include GP Bullhound and existing early-stage investor Creandum.

Founded in 2010, Vivino claims it is the world’s largest online wine marketplace and most downloaded wine app. Through its platform, Vivino provides personalised recommendations, an unbiased rating system and a selection of wine from more than 700 marketplace partners worldwide. 

With the capital, Vivino is looking to improve its core technology and AI platform in order to create better and more personalised recommendations for its users. The company also plans to strengthen its focus on select markets that offer the greatest potential growth including the US, Germany, the UK, Italy, Japan and Portugal.

"This is a testament to the remarkable work that our teams around the globe have done to build an extraordinary business," said Heini Zachariassen, Vivino's founder and CEO.

He added: “This round has raised important capital for our rapidly growing company and drawn some exceptional new leaders to our board. 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."

The latest round brings Vivino’s total funds raised to date to $221 million and comes at a time when alcohol ecommerce sales are rising amid a shift in consumer behaviour.

"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,” said Zachariassen.

Since its Series C raise in February 2018 led by the company's current board chairman Christophe Navarre – former CEO and chairman of Moët Hennessy – Vivino has increased its user base from 29 million to 50 million.