Europe
E-grocer Flink goes from seed to unicorn in less than a year with Series B
December 10, 2021
After only seven months of operating, rapid grocery delivery startup Flink has achieved unicorn status with a $750 million Series B.
The round, which gives the German startup a pre-money valuation of $2.1 billion, saw participation from Mubadala and food delivery company DoorDash.
DoorDash has been seeking to expand into Europe this year, and Flink is its first completed investment in the region, according to PitchBook data. DoorDash was reportedly in talks to invest $400 million into another rapid grocery delivery startup, Gorillas, at a $2.5 billion valuation, but walked away after a disagreement over expansion plans, Bloomberg reported. DoorDash also agreed to buy VC-backed Finnish food delivery company Wolt in an all-stock deal worth about €7 billion (around $7.9 billion) which is expected to close in H1 2022.
Investors have gone wild for rapid grocery delivery startups this year with huge rounds and even bigger valuations becoming a feature in the sector. Although talks with DoorDash didn't work out, Gorillas raised nearly $1 billion in October in a round led by Delivery Hero, valuing it at around $3 billion. Istanbul-based Getir landed three rounds of funding in 2021 alone and was most recently valued at $7.5 billion in June.
With the influx of such massive amounts of VC money into this niche space, many markets are reaching the point of saturation with investors anticipating more consolidation. Earlier this year, US-based Gopuff acquired smaller UK grocery delivery peer Fancy. Flink will also use its new investment partly to expand into new geographies both organically and through M&A.
Featured image by Poh Kim Yeoh/Getty Images
The round, which gives the German startup a pre-money valuation of $2.1 billion, saw participation from Mubadala and food delivery company DoorDash.
DoorDash has been seeking to expand into Europe this year, and Flink is its first completed investment in the region, according to PitchBook data. DoorDash was reportedly in talks to invest $400 million into another rapid grocery delivery startup, Gorillas, at a $2.5 billion valuation, but walked away after a disagreement over expansion plans, Bloomberg reported. DoorDash also agreed to buy VC-backed Finnish food delivery company Wolt in an all-stock deal worth about €7 billion (around $7.9 billion) which is expected to close in H1 2022.
Investors have gone wild for rapid grocery delivery startups this year with huge rounds and even bigger valuations becoming a feature in the sector. Although talks with DoorDash didn't work out, Gorillas raised nearly $1 billion in October in a round led by Delivery Hero, valuing it at around $3 billion. Istanbul-based Getir landed three rounds of funding in 2021 alone and was most recently valued at $7.5 billion in June.
With the influx of such massive amounts of VC money into this niche space, many markets are reaching the point of saturation with investors anticipating more consolidation. Earlier this year, US-based Gopuff acquired smaller UK grocery delivery peer Fancy. Flink will also use its new investment partly to expand into new geographies both organically and through M&A.
Featured image by Poh Kim Yeoh/Getty Images
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