Voly is back from the dead as a — plot twist — online farmers market

Former instant grocery delivery platform Voly is back-from-the-dead after collapsing in mid-November. But it’s emerging from the ashes a little bit differently, rebranding itself as “the ultimate online farmers market in Australia”.

Just three months after closing down shop, Voly is re-entering the online delivery scene. And perhaps this shouldn’t be as much of a shock as it is. Back in January online butcher startup, Our Cow, acquired Voly’s assets for an undisclosed price.

This included the business name, app and — as we have seen today — its customer database. And it hasn’t taken the business long to put those assets to work to herald a new era for Voly.

“It’s been a while since you heard from us, and we wanted you to be the first to know — WE’RE BACK,” Voly said in an email to former customers on Thursday morning.

“We’re a little different than we were before, and we have some big plans for this year that we’ll keep you updated on over the coming weeks. We can’t wait to be delivering to you again and be back, bigger and better than ever.”

The email goes on to explain that Voly will now be partnering with farmers across the country to sell their goods online “with our usual fast delivery!”

“Think top quality meat straight from the farmer, drinking pasture-fed milk, cracking an orange yolked egg into a pan, eating fresh wild caught prawns, or making a sponge cake from real organic butter, sourced directly from our local farmers,” Voly said.

Voly 2.0 has confirmed that the new business will provide same-day delivery directly from farmers to customers. However, it is yet to provide details on the logistics of the operation such as delivery partners or storage facilities. But it does sound like a larger scale version of what Field Good in Queensland spun up in November 2022.

A large portion of the email focuses on Our Cow and the journey of its founders, Bianca Tarrant and Dave McGiveron. The business was launched in 2019 after the devastation of the bushfires and drought almost wiped out their farm.

The team pivoted to ethically sourced meat to sell online and now Our Cow works with over 150 farmers across Australia and has generated $20 million in revenue in three years. It’s also days away from launching an equity crowdfunded campaign via Birchal.

There’s no hard date on when Voly will be relaunching but we know it will be in the coming weeks. It’s also unclear exactly how the business model will work and whether Our Cow’s subscription model will be introduced to the new Voly Ecosystem.

SmartCompany has reached out to Voly and Our Cow for comment.

This news comes just one day after Voly’s biggest competitor, Milkrun, laid off 20% of its staff.