Getir Tops $1 Billion in Fundraising This Year With Latest Deal

13 Sep 2021, 05:56 PM IST

(Bloomberg) -- Turkish grocery delivery app Getir brought its total fundraising for the year to more than $1.1 billion by securing additional capital from an existing investor, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Under an agreement recently reached by the Istanbul-based company, one of its investors will increase their stake in exchange for $150 million in fresh funds, said the people, who asked not to be named because the deal isn’t public. They wouldn’t specify what valuation the investment placed on Getir or the size of a shareholding that will change hands.

Getir, whose valuation nearly tripled to $7.56 billion in its prior investment round, will use the funds to expand in Turkey and abroad, the people said. A representative for Getir declined to comment.

The company, co-founded in 2015 by Nazim Salur, vaulted to prominence this year, winning the backing of global investors including Tiger Global and Mubadala Investment Co. Apart from Turkey, it’s now operating in seven cities in the U.K. as well as in Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin.

Getir’s Madrid and Barcelona operations are starting this week and it plans to open in the U.S. later this year. It raised only $38 million in all of 2020.

New Phase

The company has entered into a new phase of expansion through acquisitions on top of organic growth internationally. It bought delivery app BLOK in Spain for an undisclosed amount and acquired a majority stake in Turkish car sharing platform Moov for at least $16 million.

Salur said last month that Getir is also in talks to acquire “a strategic stake” in online marketplace n11.com, founded by Turkey’s Dogus Holding AS and South Korea’s SK Group.

In Turkey, Getir’s fundraising this year in second only to Trendyol, an e-commerce company backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. that’s so far attracted $1.85 billion.

Around the world, dozens of companies have jumped into the fast-growing delivery-in-minutes business, including companies such as Philadelphia-based Gopuff and Dija in London, as well as gig-economy veterans like Uber Technologies Inc. and Delivery Hero SE.

Venture capitalists concluded 66 deals in the sector valued at a combined $7.4 billion in the first quarter, according to research company PitchBook, up from $222 million a year earlier.

Although their approaches differ, they’re all seeking to capitalize on the needs of consumers by delivering groceries and other goods in mere minutes — a convenience that many grew accustomed to during the pandemic. Financial results from Delivery Hero and Deliveroo Plc show that consumers are keeping the habit even as restrictions on shopping and indoor dining lift in many markets.