Mobile commerce startup shutters after failing to deliver

Dive Brief:

Mobile shopping app startup Grabble is closing down after failing to deliver "required" results, reports U.K. fashion trade publication Drapers. Mobula, a technology company which operates Grabble and movie app Popcorn, is also winding down, according to the report.
Unlike other startups, the five-year-old company did not run out of money, but it also didn't make sufficient progress toward establishing a technology platform for mobile commerce, co-founder and CMO Daniel Murray told Drapers. It would be irresponsible to "throw good money after bad," he said, adding that a future project will be considered.
"We always thought running out of cash would be our cause of death, if anything. But in the end, it was a failure to deliver results and launch a product, and taking the responsibility that comes with that," Murray told Drapers.

Dive Insight:

The mobile app business is still young and promising, but mobile commerce apps untethered to a retail or brand entity have come and gone, and will no doubt continue to emerge with a shout and die with a whimper. The barrier to entry is relatively low, but to continue as a viable mobile app platform takes technical and financial wherewithal that many lack.

Among the many shopping apps operating today are: Shopgate on Shopify; ShopSavvy; Flipp; and PriceGrabber, as well as deals apps like Groupon and LivingSocial. LivingSocial ran into financial difficulties and is now owned by Groupon.

That makes the story of Grabble more intriguing than the rest. Grabble, a British fashion and lifestyle app, at first used a swipe right/left Tinder-style function that enabled consumers to buy labels such as Reiss, Asos, Topshop and Selfridges, among over 1,500 brands, although the feature was later removed.

By many measures, it was doing well, but failed to hit expected performance targets. Rather than keep plugging away, co-founders Murray and Joel Freeman (who is also the CEO) have pulled the plug, winding down the 13-employee, two-app technology company.

The company received £1.6 million (about $2.1 million at current currency exchange rates) in funding for Mobula in December 2017, reported Drapers. And the company had intended to expand into the U.S. and Asia markets with the $1.8 million it raised in 2015, reported Tech Crunch.