Getir, Turkish pioneer in express-food delivery services, and Doordash, American market leader for home food delivery services, are further heating up competition in their sector in Europe.
On Friday, Doordash anounced to lead a Series B funding round worth USD 750 million in German-based rapid delivery startup Flink SE. This adds to its 15.6% share in preferred shares which it already bought for USD 400 million on October 19, 2021. The new funding round also includes Mubadala Capital, part of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, which is already invested in Getir.
The latter, whose name means “bring” in Turkish, announced three weeks ago to have reached a definitive agreement to buy UK based grocery business Weezy at an undisclosed amount.
The food delivery market is not only a hot topic for capital investors but is also becoming increasingly interesting to the beverage industry as most of the services already included alcohol delivery to their business.
DoorDash made its stock market debut with one of the largest IPOs of 2020 and has been able to rapidly grow its business during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Other established companies like Uber (“Uber Eats”) and Amazon (“Amazon Fresh”), as well as many other startups from around the world have also entered the market and have been trying to win their fair share of the business. This makes the food delivery business highly competitive and has led to takeovers and dropouts of some of the participants. In 2018 and 2019, there were 25 mergers and acquisitions in food delivery, valued at a combined USD 20.12 billion, according to Linklaters, a global law firm.
During the pandemic, the food-delivery business proofed to be even more attractive which fueled further deals. The most important were: Dutch Just Eat Takeaway bought GrubHub for USD 7.3 billion (10.6.2020), Uber Eats acquired Postmates in a USD 2.65 billion all-stock takeover, (inside.beer, 6.7.2020), Uber Technologies completed the acquisition of the leading on-demand alcohol marketplace in North America Drizly (inside.beer, 13.10.2021), Delivery Hero SE, the world’s leading local delivery platform, announced that it has invested EUR 200 million (USD 235m) in German on-demand delivery startup Gorillas Technologies (19.10.2021), DoorDash bought Finland-based food delivery service Wolt in an all-stock deal valued at EUR 7 billion (USD 8.1bn). (inside.beer, 10.11.2021), Turkish Getir reached a definitive agreement to buy UK based grocery business Weezy (23.11.2021),, Doordash lead a Series B funding round worth USD 750 million in German-based rapid delivery startup Flink SE (10.12.2021) and Gopuff, the instant grocery startup, said now it has raised USD 1.5bn in a convertible note at up to a USD 40bn valuation, ahead of going public as soon as mid-2022 (16.12.2021).
It is believed that, after the pandemic, the consolidation of the industry will further accelerate.
Business strategies widely differ. While some of the participants own their own delivery trucks and service hubs which is very costly, other like DoorDash or Uber aren’t truly food delivery services but merely logistics companies (or aggregator businesses) that develop software to link customers’ online orders, restaurants and drivers.
