Getir had the opportunity to buy in the spring of 2023. Insiders are now revealing that a takeover deal could actually be imminent.
Will the pink food service Flink soon be flying under a different flag? According to insiders, a sale to Getir could be imminent. picture alliance/dpa | Andreas Arnold
Getir was already close to taking over the fast delivery service Flink. At the last moment, Rewe and other investors stepped in to add money. In May 2023, they invested a total of 150 million euros in the startup, which continues to be in the red. There are said to be divided opinions about this in the management of the trading group, which alone contributed a third of the sum and holds 12 percent of the shares. However, Flink recently saw no signs of Rewe exiting as an investor.
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But now insiders are providing new material: Like that Manager Magazine first reported, sources close to the company are said to have confirmed that Getir is negotiating a takeover with Flink. The talks are already well advanced and it could not be long before the deal is completed. Nevertheless, Flink told the magazine that they had received “several attractive purchase offers from delivery services.” Accordingly, Just Eat Takeaway, the parent company behind Lieferando, and Uber Eats also showed interest in Flink. However, a sale to the Turkish provider is considered the most likely option.
Probably also because the Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, which holds shares in both Flink and its competitor Getir, would benefit from a merger of its investments. According to information from Gründerszene, Mubadala had already pushed hard behind the scenes for a sale to Getir during the financing discussions last year. The fund therefore no longer participated in the investment round.
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Getir would become the German market leader through the Flink takeover
When asked by Gründerszene, Getir does not want to comment on the market rumors. Rewe also does not want to comment on the speculation. Flink says that the rose-colored delivery service completed a round of financing at the beginning of the year that could bring the company to profitability. Operationally, Flink is already profitable in the large markets, but the corporate headquarters still ensures a cost surplus, which leads to a loss across the company. However, Flink does not want to officially comment on how far any offers for talks have progressed at this point.
After Getir took over the Berlin fast delivery service Gorillas in December 2022, the Turkish provider could take market leadership in Germany by purchasing Flink. Flink is expected to dominate around 80 percent of the market here. The startup is also active in the Netherlands and France. In 2022, the pink fast delivery service generated sales of around 400 million euros.
There has been consolidation in the delivery service industry for some time now, with the market increasingly concentrating on a few powerful players. Industry observers therefore speak of a “winner-takes-all market”.
Knuspr, Picnic, Wolt: Competitors’ expansion projects are putting pressure on Getir
The provider Knuspr swallowed the delivery service Bringmeister in Munich around September 2023. In addition, the subsidiary of the Czech online grocer Rohlik Group has announced that it will expand to Berlin in spring 2024. A total of 15 more German cities are expected to follow by 2023. According to its own information, Knuspr is already operating profitably at its Munich location. In general, hardly any of the providers have managed to stay in the black across the board.
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The Dutch company Picnic, which delivers groceries in electric vans using the “milkman principle”, recorded a loss of over 60 million euros for its German business in 2022. Nevertheless, Picnic is currently expanding into 40 German cities and also wants to expand its presence in France. The startup recently raised around 355 million euros from investors. The fact that delivery service Wolt is now expanding its business model from just delivering food from restaurants to food and non-food products is putting additional pressure on competitor Getir. Through a partnership with Flink, products from Rewe’s own brands will be able to be purchased in the Wolt app in the future. A takeover of Flink would reshuffle the cards again.
Flink probably worth less than a billion euros
Either way, the market outlook for delivery services is rather bleak: as a result of inflation, demand for orders has fallen sharply. After the boom in the Corona years, fewer customers are now willing to pay high delivery fees and comparatively higher prices for food when they can just as easily walk to the supermarket themselves. In addition, the startups have to shoulder high costs for operating warehouses (“dark stores”) and for employee salaries. Flink and Getir have therefore had to lay off large parts of their workforce in recent months.
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After Flink had to accept a massive drop in company valuation due to the emergency financing – from 2.5 billion to around one billion euros – the purchase price is now likely to be even lower.