The Berlin express delivery service Flink needs money again. In the current market environment, the search is proving to be difficult. The unicorn already has promises.
The fast-delivery service Flink needs money, at least until the threshold of profitability is reached. In Germany, where the online supermarket generates around half of its sales, co-founder and CEO Oliver Merkel wants to be in the black in the fourth quarter of 2023. A year later, Flink should be completely profitable.
The start-up scene found out from business circles at the beginning of the year that the delivery service wants to complete a round of financing in the spring. Due to the currently difficult market conditions, the startup expects that the conclusion of the investment could be delayed until early summer. After all, the unicorn has now received commitments of 100 million euros, according to insiders. As the Handelsblatt has also learned that the round of financing is said to be worth around 200 million euros – with money from existing investors as well as new investors. One of the old shareholders who want to increase is the supermarket chain Rewe.
Valuation of almost three billion unsustainable
However, an agreement is far from in sight – the talks are still in the early stages. For Flink, the forthcoming financial injection could also have a bitter aftertaste: Several people familiar with the matter confirmed to the Handelsblatt that the company valuation of the current unicorn would drop significantly. It is unlikely that Flink will be able to maintain its previous post-money valuation of almost three billion euros in the current market environment and that a down-round is therefore certain. But: That’s not surprising, because numerous tech companies are currently struggling with enormous devaluations.
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After the initial boom in bicycle couriers, who deliver groceries to households within minutes, and startups such as Gorillas and Flink becoming unicorns in record time, the capital-intensive model turned out to be a loss-making business in the long term. The increased food prices and high logistics and personnel costs are an additional burden for start-ups in the economic crisis. Gorillas was therefore taken over by the Turkish delivery service Getir in December 2022.
Parts of Flink already insolvent
Flink was able to achieve its highest turnover to date with around 400 million euros last year. Nevertheless, the losses remain – and austerity is the order of the day instead of growth. Flink had to file for bankruptcy for its Austrian subsidiary at the end of 2022.
According to Handelsblatt, investors are not currently speculating whether the pink delivery service will ultimately have to be resold. Industry experts had previously voiced this assumption. The round of financing remains in the three-digit million range. In December 2021, Flink secured around 759 million from the US delivery service Doordash, among others, and raised its valuation to almost three billion dollars. According to insiders, the French supermarket chain Carrefour put 60 million into Flink last spring after the Berlin startup took over the Carrefour stake Cajoo.
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