California: California based venture capital firm Battery Ventures has invested $3 million in Virginia based online grocery shop, RelayFoods.com. With this round, Relay’s total funding amount comes to $5.5 million. The company would use the capital to expand their business and fine tune the operations for enhanced customer experience.

“Relay is different than many of its predecessors because it eliminates the costly ‘last mile’, delivering food from local farmers and merchants to customers at convenient area pickup sites. With how much carnage there has been in this sector historically, we are very excited about Relay’s near term profitability in each of its core markets,’ says Brian O’Malley, General Partner, Battery Ventures.

The company was founded as Retail Relay in 2009 by Zach Buckner. It has been branded as RelayFoods.com since 2010. The site allows users to chop by vendor or category, best sellers, previous purchases, new products, recipes, or lists. It has partnered with various vendors to provide grocery items from the basics to specialty foods. It now has more than 100 unique local merchants, vendors, and stores as partners, and offers more than 20,000 product offerings.

“The continued support from Battery and the response we have received from new investors demonstrates confidence in our innovative model and our goal of transforming the way people buy groceries,” says Zach Buckner, Founder & CEO, RelayFoods.com.

Battery Ventures is a VC firm which invests in technology and innovation. It partners with entrepreneurs and management teams across various technology sectors and invests across various stages in companies: seed, startup, expansion to growth equity and buyouts. Its portfolio investments include Anobit (acquired by Apple), Akamai, Redwood Systems, Bright Edge, Bazaarvoice, ExactTarget, Gogobot, and many others. It manages over $4 billion in committed capital, including $750 million in its current fund.