Massmart-owned retailer Makro has acquired a majority stake in delivery start-up WumDrop. With the acquisition, the company said it plans to shrink the window between a customer order and delivery from three days to three hours for clients located within 20km of Makro store.

The value of the deal has not been disclosed.

WumDrop, which was founded by Simon Hartley in 2014, will continue to work with other clients, including The Foschini Group, Standard Bank and Zando.

Makro has already rolled WumDrop out to 16 stores in Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg. “The initial results are pleasing, with a turnaround time from customer order placement to completed delivery in less than two-and-a-half hours,” WumDrop said in a statement.

The start-up offers multiple delivery service levels, including on-demand, after-hours and same-day delivery at discounted rates for business customers in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban.