Well that was quick. U.K.-based hyper fast grocery delivery startup Weezy — which only raised a pre-seed for its 15-minute delivery services of supermarket fare last year (after founding the biz in 2019) — has been bagged by Turkish 10-minute delivery app Getir.
It’s the latest slice of consolidation to hit Europe’s hyper competitive on-demand “quick commerce” convenience shopping apps.
The value of the deal is not being announced, but Weezy has raised more than $25 million per Crunchbase, including a $20 million Series A this January — which was led by New York’s Left Lane Capital. Other investors include DN Capital, Heartcore Capital and angels, such as Chris Muhr, the Groupon founder, plus some former execs from the supermarket and on-demand food delivery sectors.
Getir, meanwhile, has been dialling up its attention on the U.K. market following its launch (in London), this January — announcing last month that it planned to invest around £100 million (~$134 million) in the country to establish a nationwide network of local stores (which it claimed would create “up to 10,000 new and permanent jobs”).
Presumably its acquisition of Weezy accounts for a chunk of that planned splurge — as it’ll be picking up the latter’s dark stores, which includes micro fulfilment centers in London, Manchester, Brighton and Bristol.
UK on-demand supermarket Weezy raises $20M Series A led by NYC’s Left Lane Capital
Back in January Weezy said it planned to open an additional 40 sites across the U.K. by the end of this year — in addition to two in London. While Getir’s own U.K. footprint prior to the acquisition stood at between nine and 15 cities and towns — including Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool.
The Turkish on-demand giant isn’t short of funds to shop for rivals. This summer it topped up its war-chest by raising a further $555 million in Series D funds from investors including Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital and Mubadala Investment Company — and has pulled in close to a billion in funding this year (and tripled its valuation to $7.5 billion), per reports.
Today, Getir said its business — which was founded back in 2015, long before the pandemic arrived to supercharge online grocery shopping — is now worth $7.7 billion.
Commenting on the acquisition in a statement, Turancan Salur, Getir U.K. general manager, said: “Teaming up with Weezy, which has quickly established itself across the U.K., is an exciting opportunity and one that complements our people-first belief and business approach. We look forward to welcoming Weezy’s customers, employees and partners to the enlarged group.”
In another supporting statement, Weezy CEO and co-founder, Kristof Van Beveren, added: “We are incredibly excited to continue our journey in disrupting the skyrocketing ultrafast grocery market. Getir has an unparalleled track-record of achievements and experience with an equally ambitious team. Our alignment in purpose and culture is a winning formula for expansion globally and we will continue to deliver an exceptional offering to consumers in minutes.”
Germany rival Gorillas also grabbed almost $1 billion in funding last month, announcing a Series C close. So startups which have raised relative peanuts are obvious targets for rapacious, better resourced and established rivals — whose goal is to beat the competition by scaling faster to win the market for instant groceries.
Weezy is not Getir’s first acquisition — this summer it picked up a small player in Southern Europe to expand into Spain and Italy. It has also recently (this month) kicked off a service in the U.S. where it’s squaring up to major U.S. rivals.
One of which, Gopuff, has also been on a European acquisition spree lately — starting with the U.K. market, where it’s been trying to muscle in on Getir’s territory, giving the latter added incentive to bulk up its own U.K. presence.
In all, Getir is now operating in nine countries (Turkey, the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and the U.S.) — offering app-based services, including super speedy urban delivery of groceries from dark stores where it stocks some 2,000 “everyday items” that can be delivered day or night.
Gorillas grabs ‘close to’ $1BN, Series C values the on-demand grocery delivery biz at $2.1BN
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