Home Ā» Flink: Fast delivery service secures 150 million emergency funding

Flink: Fast delivery service secures 150 million emergency funding

by admin
Flink: Fast delivery service secures 150 million emergency funding
“>”>

External content not available

Your privacy settings prevent the loading and display of all external content (e.g. graphics or tables) and social networks (e.g. Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc.). To display, please activate the settings for social networks and external content in the privacy settings .

Flink recently failed to secure new financing. An emergency sale seemed more and more likely. Now the delivery service has found new investors.

Looking for a way: How can Flink continue?
Considerable

Sometimes things are different: the Berlin express delivery service Flink is not initially sold to the competitor ā€“ and new gorillas owner ā€“ Getir, as has recently been speculated. Instead, Rewe and other investors are putting fresh capital into the company, as Manager Magazin first reported and how the start-up scene found out from the corporate environment. As part of an emergency financing, 150 million euros flow into the Berlin company.

So far, the round has only been financed by existing investors, including the US delivery service Doordash and the supermarket chain Rewe. Rewe is also said to be leading the current financing, with more than 50 million coming from the retail chain’s coffers. The valuation, which was last at 2.5 billion euros, has fallen very significantly. Flink is only worth around one billion euros to investors.

See also  Markets: BlackRock underweight on Wall Street, European and London stock exchanges. Here because

Tensions behind the scenes with Mubadala

One of the most important shareholders is no longer there. So far, the sovereign wealth fund Mubadala from Abu Dhabi has not only been one of Flink’s major financiers, but also one of the largest shareholders in competitor Getir and would benefit from a merger of its investments. According to information from the start-up scene, Mubadala has therefore been pushing hard behind the scenes for a sale to Getir. Apparently there had been tensions among the shareholders for a while.

With the current financing, Mubadala no longer seems willing to provide Flink with additional capital as an independent company. The state fund is therefore no longer involved in the 150 million round and, according to information from the start-up scene, has not even exercised its pro rata rights. They allow each shareholder to maintain their percentage share in the company with an investment, i.e. not to dilute the share.

Further downsizing

As part of the takeover of the Berlin adversary Gorillas by the Turkish Getir, it had already become apparent that difficult times were ahead for the express delivery services after the end of the pandemic. None of the providers was able to deliver signals that they would soon be profitable. Even massive staff cuts did not seem to bring enough relief. According to research by Manager Magazin, more than 8,000 employees lost their jobs at Flink alone last year.

Another drastic step follows to reduce costs. Nevertheless, Flink boss and co-founder Oliver Merkel apparently lured investors to lower costs even further. According to Flink headquarters, around a hundred of the approximately 600 employees are to be laid off, as reported by Manager Magazin.

See also  Outdoor Expressions Limited Provides High-Quality Artificial Plants: Enhancing Spaces with Simulated Greenery

read too

In order to make itself leaner for potential investors, Flink has closed at the end of 2022 Insolvency for the Austrian subsidiary Registered. The company justified the move at the time by saying that the region would not be profitable in the foreseeable future. More than 160 people – both drivers and office workers – lost their jobs at the time. There are currently only vacancies for Germany, the Netherlands and France ā€“ the core markets since the very beginning. Expansion into other countries is not in sight. Flink had targeted Belgium last year. Also from Italy, Denmark and Spain was loud food newspaper once the speech. Rather than growing, Flink has had dozens over the past few months Department stores cleared and advertised on real estate portals.

Also the Own brand strategy the company has paused for the time being. More than a year ago, the delivery service launched products such as jam and ice cream under the Flink’s Finest label. Such goods from our own production bring in higher margins, i.e. more money. Actually, the line should be available in all markets, but so far the offer has been limited.

read too

In addition to CEO Merkel as co-founders, Julian Dames and Christoph Cordes are also behind Flink. Even before their most recent founding, they had gained plenty of food and startup experience: Julian Dames joined the Foodora team in 2015 shortly after it started as a manager, accompanied the exit to Delivery Hero and most recently worked at the Japanese tech VC Softbank. Christoph Cordes was head of the Berlin furniture retailer Home24 for almost four years and left the listed company a good year ago. Oliver Merkel headed the Berlin office of Bain & Company. In his more than 20-year career, the management consultant had specialized in retail, especially food.

See also  Colombian Economy Nears Recession as GDP Plummets in Third Quarter of 2023

You may also like

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More

Privacy & Cookies Policy