Getir, a startup from Turkey, has created a $7.5 million business using a mobile app that allows consumers to order groceries and have them delivered within minutes. It has also grown organically, focusing on urban markets in Europe and the U.S., where it is disrupting traditional corner shops by offering a service that requires less effort and takes up less time than the average customer. It is now changing its strategy by acquiring its first acquisition in order to expand its reach into three additional countries.Blok, a Barcelona-based instant delivery grocery service, will be acquired by the company. The financial details of the deal aren't being disclosed, but I believe Blok (previously Huvi Technologies) was previously bootstrapped, relatively new and small (launching in February 2021) and was already shopping around.Blok was founded by Vishal Verma and Hunab Moreno. It is currently active in Spain, Italy and Milan, which are its largest markets. Portugal was already on the company's roadmap before Getir and will be launched soon. As part of the deal, Getir will have more than 120 employees.Getir was founded in 2015 and has been profitable since then. It started out with fast delivery, but it has expanded to include other services such as restaurant delivery (GetirFood), local delivery (GetirLocals), water delivery (GetirWater) and more.Getir has gained momentum that it can now use to expand its flagship fast food model into other markets such as the UK. I see its mopeds all over my London neighborhood, including the Netherlands, Paris, and Berlin. It will use the hundreds of millions it raised this year (Getir has raised approximately $1 billion total) to expand the company's reach into the U.S. market where it will compete with local rivals such as GoPuff.It may be the oldest movers and most capitalised of all the players in the sector, but Getir is not the only one.Startups are flooding the European market right now, with a variety of services built around the same principles of super-fast delivery across an array of approximately 1,500 goods. This is significantly smaller than what you would find in a grocery shop (17,000 is a common number) and closer to what might be found in the type of small market that is available throughout cities in Europe.Flink, Glovo and Glovo have all raised millions, but less than $2billion, according to Nazim Salur, Getir CEO, who estimated that they could scale their operations.The enthusiasm for taking up the challenge has been high, partly due to the pandemic, the fact that many people are living under stay at home orders or just wanting to avoid public places in order to reduce Covid-19 spread, but also because of the good traction gained with millennials and other younger consumers who really enjoy using their phones for all practical chores which can be turned into fun activities once they become apps.Salur stated that Getir saw threefold growth per year before Covid. However, some years such as 2017 saw Getir grow fivefold. We also saw a 5x increase in growth during Covid, but it would have been 4x without it. Although it accelerated our growth, Covid isn't the only reason people use us. It's mostly because we are a great convenience. This means that we can grow. Turkey is back to normal, but we continue growing every month.But is this a large enough market to support all the players? At least one of these players is currently struggling to raise capital to compete. This is due to the logistics and delivery of the goods, the dark stores that stock the products, and the high competition. They are now looking for a buyer.It is not surprising that Blok had not raised any significant funding and that, despite having built out technology and a team, it was ready for sale less than six months after its launch.Verma from Block said that she was very happy to partner with the pioneers in ultrafast delivery to achieve our common goal of leading the on-demand grocery market for Southern Europe. This acquisition will allow us to harness Getir's industry knowledge, relationships, and technology. We also combine that with our world-class team and execution capabilities to make this a formidable leader. We have received a tremendous response to our launches in Spain, Italy, and we can't wait for Getir to join us.However, despite the obvious picture of consolidation in-the-making Getir won't get into business of consolidating all of that.Getir won't become an acquisition company by buying one after another. In an interview, Salur, who cofounded the company along with Serkan Borancili, Tuncay Tutek and Tuncay Tutek said that this is not how we operate. It's a free market, and we may consider it if there is good reason. While we won't pursue ten companies around the world, we might consider them if there is an opportunity.
