The COVID-19 pandemic had a great impact on the Turkish hyper-fast grocery delivery service Getir for obvious reasons as people could not go out to buy their groceries or go to restaurants. The app has unique characteristics – no delivery charges and less than 10-minute delivery that set it apart from the competition
Today, Getir has made a big announcement by acquiring the UK-based instant grocery delivery startup Weezy. Weezy, founded in 2019 by Kristof Van Beveren and Alec Dent is UK’s first ultrafast grocery delivery startup that delivers groceries in less than 15 minutes.
Getir to grow in the UK
With this acquisition (value remains undisclosed), Getir intends to solidify its commitment to the UK market. This acquisition of Weezy comes as a part of the rapid expansion plan of the company wherein it debuted services in London in January this year. Now, the service operates in 15 cities including Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester.
Weezy operates in UK cities such as London, Bristol, Manchester and Brighton, thereby letting Getir establish its presence in the cities where it is not operating right now. Furthermore, the Istanbul startup will make use of the dynamic Weezy team of 700 employees to consolidate its growth.
Recently, Getir announced that it will invest £100 million (nearly $134 million) in the UK to establish a network of local stores across the country and create up to a whopping 10,000 jobs. This is the second acquisition to be made by Getir to fuel its expansion.
Attained unicorn status
Back in June this year, Getir, the pioneering instant grocery delivery service picked up $550 million in a Series D funding round that raised its valuation to over $7.5 billion. The investment came from its existing investors Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global. A slew of other investors also took part in the round. Apparently, Getir became the second Turkish app to attain unicorn status. With this investment, the company planned to fuel its expansion into the US.
Rapid expansion plans
In addition to the UK growth plans, Getir founded by Nazim Salur, Serkan Borancili, and Tuncay Tutek in 2015, seems to be eyeing international growth as well. The strategic acquisition of Weezy comes after the company’s recent expansion into the United States by entering Chicago. This is the first city wherein Getir operates a fully electric delivery fleet comprising e-mopeds and e-bikes and completes the grocery delivery in just 10 minutes.
Following Chicago, the company intends to grow in Boston and New York as well. It eyes to operate in six countries in the US by the end of this year. Also, the company started its operations in Amsterdam in May 2021 followed by Paris and Berlin. Now, Getir operates in nine European countries including the UK, Turkey, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and the US.
To solidify its presence in Europe, Getir acquired BLOK in July this year prior to Weezy. BLOK is a Barcelona-based online grocery startup and it was bought with the intention to cemet the position of Getir in the region. Notably, BLOK founded by Vishal Verma, Hunab Moreno, and Varun Kapoor in 2021 as Huvi Technologies was active in Spain and Italy while its huge markets were Barcelona, Milan, and Madrid.
How about competition?
Given that Europe is a thriving market for online grocery delivery sector and there is a wave of challengers that are geared up to take over well-established supermarkets and convenience stores. Some of its notable rivals include Germany’s Gorillas that recently closed its Series C round. Likewise, in the US market, it will have to combat rivals such as GoPuff, which is also on an acquisition spree in Europe with the UK market being its first entry point.
