Instant grocery app Getir acquires competitor Gorillas • TechCrunch

After weeks of rumors, Getir announced the acquisition of Gorillas. This is a major consolidation deal for the instant grocery delivery space. The Financial Times first reported that Getir had completed the acquisition of its competitor. TechCrunch confirmed the news with Getir.

“Markets go up and down, but consumers love our service and the convenience is here to stay. The super fast grocery delivery industry will grow steadily for many years to come and Getir will lead this category which it created 7 years ago,” Getir founder Nazim Salur said in a statement. .

Getir initially launched its service in Turkey in 2015. Over the past two years, many people have started ordering groceries online due to lockdown restrictions. Getir, Gorillas, Flink, and a cohort of startups tried to popularize a new grocery delivery model.

Instead of booking a delivery slot for the next day, orders are processed instantly on these apps. The user experience works more like food delivery services, such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat Takeaway. You open an app, choose a few items, press the order button, and track your order from your phone.

These services have raised a ton of money and grown at a rapid pace during the COVID-19 pandemic. Behind the scenes, all of these instant delivery startups have built networks of dark stores in dense cities so that orders can be delivered in less than an hour.

On top of these costly operating costs, space startups have spent a small fortune on promotional codes and reduced shipping costs. But restrictions have been lifted, venture capital funding has dried up, and some cities have imposed restrictions on dark stores. This is why 2022 has been a difficult year for the industry, leading to many layoffs, withdrawals and consolidation moves.

In May, Getir announced it would cut 14% of its global staff – more than 4,000 people have been affected by the downsizing. In addition to its home country, Getir operates in various European countries, such as the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal. It also operates in the United States.

Gorillas also had to go through a series of layoffs earlier this year. He decided to focus on a handful of markets – Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US. The German startup acquired Frichti before it became harder to raise funding rounds.

According to Tim Bradshaw of the Financial Times, the combined group is now valued at $10 billion. At the height of the instant grocery bubble, Getir and Gorillas hit valuations of $11.8 billion and $3 billion, respectively. Investors in Gorillas are expected to get 12% of Getir’s cap chart.

As there is a lot of overlap between the two companies, there could be layoffs in some cities where both services are currently live. Reducing the number of dark stores could also help business results.