Just when you thought investment in the European grocery delivery space couldn’t get any frothier, both Flink and Getir announced massive rounds of new funding today. Germany-based Flink raised a $240 million Series A round, while Turkey’s Getir announced that it has raised $550 million.
Both companies operate dark stores that are set up in city neighborhoods and carry limited inventory. Because of where these hubs are located and the tight delivery radius, customers can receive their order within minutes of placing it. The entire space has been white hot since the start of the year with a number of players launching and getting funded.
Flink, for instance, just launched six months ago, and announced in March that it had raised $52 million. Reuters reports that its new funding round announced today was led by Prosus, BOND and Mubadala Capital. Flink already operates 50 dark stores that already reach more than 3 million customers, and the company says it it opening up a new store every two days.
In addition to its big funding haul, Flink also said that it has partnered with the German supermarket chain Rewe group. According to TechCrunch, the deal will make Flink Rewe’s preferred partner for smaller grocery deliveries. This will be interesting to watch because part of the appeal of the smaller dark store is that they are small. That makes it faster to assemble an order and get it out the door. Will Rewe set up a special mini-section within its stores for Flink, or will Flink delivery people just need to sprint through existing Rewe supermarkets in order to get deliveries out on time?
Flink’s $240 million seems quaint compared with the money Getir has raised. The $550 million the company announced today follows the $300 million it raised in March of this year. The Financial Times writes that Getir, which only just expanded outside of Turkey this past January, is now valued at $7.5 billion. Getir CEO, Nazım Salur, told the FT that his company raised all this money this year is that Getir plans to expand to the U.S. this year rather than later. CNBC reports that Silver Lake, Mubadala, Sequoia and Tiger Global all participated in the round.
While Getir won’t find as much competition here in the U.S., the speedy grocery delivery space is starting to get busy, especially in New York City. Fridge No More, JOKR and Gorillas now all operate in various part of the Big Apple. And speaking of Gorillas, Sifted writes that the German delivery company, which just raised $290 million in March is looking at a secondary share sale in the hopes of raising another $1 billion.
As I’ve written before, while 10-minute grocery delivery is still new, it is poised to change our very relationship with food shopping. If these services take off, it could make grocery shopping more like a utility that you turn on whenever you need something, as often as you need it. These companies still have to prove they can scale and make money when people order just one avocado. Flink, Getir and all these startups may feel like Kozmo.com 2.0 to those old enough to remember, but as I wrote today, I don’t think that’s the case.
I do, however, think we’ll see more funding news, especially for new speedy delivery startups here in the U.S.
