OKLAHOMA CITY—JackBe, a curbside drive-thru grocer, has raised $11.5 million in capital to fast-track development and expansion of its business, it announced. The funding comes from individual investors and strategic partners, such as GP Investments, LLC, as well as a successful WeFunder campaign.

In January, JackBe opened its first store in Oklahoma City as a market disruptor. According to a statement from the company, JackBe wants to solve the drawbacks often found with traditional grocery pickup: limited availability, dictated pick-up time slots, lack of quality products and substituting out-of-stock items. Instead JackBe lets customers place an order anytime and anywhere on the JackBe mobile app and pick up when they want. It also guarantees no substitutions 100% of the time. Every item is hand-picked, and the stores carries exceptional produce with an emphasis on freshness and food safety. There are no membership or delivery fees as it operates with an efficient store footprint focused on convenience.

As the future of grocery shopping continues to evolve, drive-up grocers look to be a segment that will expand in the grocery space. According to JackBe,

• E-commerce firm Mercatus predicts that online grocery shopping will double to $200-plus billion by 2026, with curbside pickup among the fastest-growing segments.
• Findings from "The ConnectedEconomy Monthly Report: The Gender Divide Edition," which drew from a survey of more than 2,600 U.S. consumers in October, revealed that 45% of men and 36% of women buy groceries online for curbside pickup, more than said the same of any other digital grocery channel.

"We believe that grocery shopping can be better and have embarked on a mission to make buying groceries 'nearly' fun again. With our seed funding and pre-series A funding, we've built and opened the first premier curbside drive-thru grocer in the U.S., to serve people in and around Oklahoma City. Our first store is paving the way to take our concept to suburbs nationwide," said Alex Ruhter, CEO of JackBe.

In August, the Washington Post reported on the rise of curbside pickup. “People go to like three different grocery stores for three different things. And I think the same goes for how people shop—whether it’s online, or in-store, or curbside or buy online—they sort of want the menu of options that works and whatever works for them that day,” Conor Flynn, CEO of Kimco Realty, told the Post.