Alpacas wanted to be like gorillas, only eco. Now the Berliners and 80 employees are threatened with the end. A new investor must be found by the end of May.
The fast delivery service Alpacas has filed for bankruptcy. This is based on data from the insolvency register. When asked by Gründerszene, the insolvency administrator Christian Otto confirmed that the Berlin start-up had filed the application due to impending insolvency, among other things.
Specifically, the last round of financing failed and the startup is now dependent on the remaining contributions from the shareholders. These include the Hellofresh investor Vorwerk Ventures, who joined Alpakas in February 2022. How much money flowed into the startup at the time is not publicly known. It was probably in the millions. The animal founder Lawrence Leuschner, MVP Factory, the fund of Verena Pausder and the (former) gorilla investor Atlantic Food Labs also participated in alpacas.
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This is how it continues after filing for bankruptcy for alpacas and the employees
80 people are currently working for alpacas. “The salaries of the employees are secured by the insolvency money until the end of May 2023,” assures Otto. According to the current situation, the administrator is therefore assuming that a solution – for example a new investor – will have to be found by then.
According to Otto, there are contacts with interested parties for an investment in the express delivery service. However, these date from the time before the bankruptcy filing. So it remains to be seen whether potential investors are interested in restructuring the company.
Alpacas delivers unpackaged food
Alpakas was founded by Tomy Eitner, Simon Chorzelski and Antony Roczek in 2021. The start-up started out as a “zero-waste gorilla” or “gorillas for unpackaged shops”, as the start-up scene summarized the Berlin business shortly after it started.
As with the start-ups Gorillas (acquired by Getir at the end of the year for a sum of billions) or Flink, Alpacas promises fast delivery to the front door. However, unlike the competition, it does not take minutes, but deliveries in a two-hour slot until the package reaches the customer. In addition, the delivery area is currently limited to several Berlin districts.
Alpakas wants to differentiate itself from the competition through sustainability by largely avoiding single-use packaging material or plastic waste in its products and instead relying on reusable glasses or compostable paper. On its website, the start-up says that 97 percent of the range is “completely zero waste packed”.
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Pitch deck and customer data taken over without being asked?
Alpacas were not without controversy either. As Gründerszene found out at the end of 2021, the Berliners are said to have used data from the competitor Fandli for their pitch deck – without the knowledge of Fandli founder Tim Wehrmeyer. The Berliners got the data because Alpacas co-founder Roczek was previously a shareholder at Fandli. Roczek is also said to have downloaded customer and order data from Fandli before leaving. When asked by the start-up scene at the time, Roczek “clearly and absolutely” rejected the allegations of data theft. Fandli has been insolvent since mid-2022.