Gopuff Plans to Expand Across Europe After U.K. Launch
Gopuff Plans to Expand Across Europe After U.K. Launch
(Bloomberg) -- Rapid delivery startup Gopuff is planning to spend heavily on expanding across all of Europe after officially launching in the U.K.
Founded in 2013, SoftBank Group Corp.-backed Gopuff has recently raised $1 billion from investors to expand its services offering consumers convenience items within minutes from hundreds of micro-fulfillment centers across the U.S.
After acquiring a pair of rapid delivery startups based in the U.K., Gopuff is now rolling out its offering in Europe with plans to expand across the entire continent as competition intensifies in the sector.
“We’re going to go to every country in Europe,” said Yakir Gola, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Gopuff, in an interview Tuesday. The company plans to invest “billions of dollars on the international expansion,” he added.
In August Gopuff agreed to buy British startup Dija and it previously bought rapid grocery firm Fancy in May. The deals gave the company a presence in the U.K., as well as outposts in Spain and France, and now has more than 1,000 employees in Europe.
Gopuff will operate in 33 cities in the U.K. by the middle of 2022, the company said in a statement Tuesday, and the official launch marks the transition of Fancy and Dija to Gopuff’s app.
The plans from Philadelphia-based Gopuff come amid a period of intensifying competition among European companies offering rapid delivery of groceries and convenience goods. Uber Technologies Inc. and Deliveroo Plc are among the major companies exploring the sector alongside startups such as Gorillas Technologies GmbH.
Gopuff will now put a significant focus on organic growth, as it expands and it’s set on entering Germany, Gola added in the interview. Bloomberg News previously reported Gopuff explored a deal for German startup Flink.
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