Brief: More consolidation for eGrocery as instant grocery giant Getir buys rival Gorillas

• Turkey-headquartered instant grocery delivery service Getir has acquired German rival Gorillas. The Financial Times was first to break the news.
• The deal, which brings together two of Europe’s biggest instant grocery players, values the combined group at $10 billion.
• Getir did not disclose financial terms of the deal.

Why it matters:

Consolidation is here in full force for the flailing instant grocery sector.

The industry, built on startups delivering grocery items in 15 minutes or less, thrived during pandemic lockdowns. Startups in the eGrocery category raised $18.5 billion in 2021, claiming over 35% of agrifoodtech’s total $51.7 billion according to AgFunder Data. [Disclosure: AFN’s parent company is AgFunder.] 

Gorillas itself has raised $1.3 billion to date from the likes of Delivery Hero, Coatue Management, DST Global and Tencent, among others.

Times have changed. Funding and investor excitement over the quick-grocery sector is rapidly drying up. Both Getir and Gorillas cut staff this year, while smaller players have shut down or been sold. 

And according to the Financial Times, Berlin-based Gorillas has spent almost all of its $1.3 billion.

“Gorillas had only two choices — sell or go out of business,” an industry consultant told CNBC.

The deal with Getir has been rumored for months. It values Gorillas at around $1.2 billion, down from $3 billion in September 2021.

According to FT, some of Gorillas’ investors will receive around $40 million in cash, in addition to the equity in Getir. Some backers will get little to nil on their investment, however.

Getir’s own valuation has been slashed, from $11.8 billion to $8.8 billion. Nevertheless, founder Nazim Salur remained optimistic in a statement:

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

The current fundraising environment as well as impending regulatory scrutiny for the sector will tell us more in the near future.

Getir currently operates in the Turkey, the US, the UK and several other European countries.