Flink, a quick-commerce startup out of Berlin that was an acquisition target of Gorillas, Getir, Amazon, and Gopuff, is spelling out how it plans to go forth on its own. TechCrunch has exclusively learned that the company has raised $150 million, which it will use to double down on business in Germany and the Netherlands in partnership with Just Eat Takeaway.com.
The funding, $115 million in equity and $35 million in debt, is coming from a mix of new and existing investors. BOND, Mubadala, Northzone, and supermarket giant REWE are all backing Flink, along with two unnamed investors.
The company did not disclose whether Just Eat Takeaway is one of the unnamed investors. The Dutch company had also been interested in a merger with Flink, and it looks like they are working together in what Flink described as a “preferred partnership.” REWE was an existing preferred partner of Flink’s.
“This investment will enable us to further expand our footprint, improve operational efficiency, and continue delivering the fast, reliable service that our customers rely on,” Oliver Merkel, founder and managing director of Flink, said in a statement.
Flink did not disclose its valuation, but sources close to the company told TechCrunch that it is just under $1 billion. The company is undergoing some major recapitalising, considering that prior to this round, Flink had raised more than $1.5 billion, per PitchBook.
When interest in quick commerce was at its peak, Flink was valued at nearly $3 billion after an investment from DoorDash in December 2021 and just months later, it raised more funding that put its valuation close to $5 billion, according to sources.
And in April this year, it was rumored that Flink raised $106 million while exploring a sale to either Getir or Just Eat Takeaway. From what we understand, that capital was a mixture of bridge financing and other commitments that dated as far back as 2022. Since then, the erstwhile aggressive Getir has seriously retreated. However, some of those rumors were accurate, as Just Eat Takeaway indeed is in the mix. Today’s funding round, we are told, is a fresh deal.
The news of the new capital for Flink comes at the tail end of a tumultuous time in the instant delivery market.
This branch of e-commerce — in which online retailers offer a smaller assortment of goods that they house in distributed “dark stores” and offer for delivery in an hour or less — made a huge splash early during the COVID-19 pandemic. They came in as a handy way for consumers who were either sheltering in place or interested in maintaining social distance to get items they might have bought at a store in the past.
That gap in the market proved to be catnip for investors, who poured billions into a plethora of startups, which took the same route as ride-hailing companies, with expensive marketing campaigns to lure users. Notably, some of Flink’s investors being announced today were part of that rush. It was all a house of cards, however, and many such startups either collapsed or were scooped up by rivals.
Flink was very much a part of that expansion, consolidation and retreat: It acquired Cajoo in 2022 in a deal that was perceived as a saving-face move for the French startup. Now, Flink has officially called it quits and has exited France.
Just as Getir has retreated to its home market of Turkey, Flink is also narrowing its focus to improve its unit economics, and any future ambitions of expansion would stem from this more solid base. Today, the startup is focusing on Germany and the Netherlands.
Flink said it expects to make gross revenue of $600 million in 2024 in the two countries, up 20% compared to 2023. It also said it has broken even in EBITDA terms in both markets, and is targeting overall profitability by Q2 2025. Its average order (also called basket size) now rests at $40.
Flink has 146 hubs in the two countries across some 80 cities, and it said it will be opening 30 more locations in the next year. It has 8,900 employees.