Quick-commerce startup Flink raises another $150M at a valuation of nearly $1B
Flink, a quick-commerce startup out of Berlin that was an acquisition target of Gorillas, Getir, Amazon, and Gopuff
Flink, a quick-commerce startup out of Berlin that was an acquisition target of Gorillas, Getir, Amazon, and Gopuff, is spelling out how it plans to go forth on its own. TechCrunch has exclusively learned that the company has raised $150 million, which it will use to double down on business in Germany and the Netherlands in partnership with Just Eat Takeaway.com.
The funding, $115 million in equity and $35 million in debt, is coming from a mix of new and existing investors. BOND, Mubadala, Northzone, and supermarket giant REWE are all backing Flink, along with two unnamed investors.
The company did not disclose whether Just Eat Takeaway is one of the unnamed investors. The Dutch company had also been interested in a merger with Flink, and it looks like they are working together in what Flink described as a “preferred partnership.” REWE was an existing preferred partner of Flink’s.
“This investment will enable us to further expand our footprint, improve operational efficiency, and continue delivering the fast, reliable service that our customers rely on,” Oliver Merkel, founder and managing director of Flink, said in a statement.
Flink did not disclose its valuation, but sources close to the company told TechCrunch that it is just under $1 billion. The company is undergoing some major recapitalising, considering that prior to this round, Flink had raised more than $1.5 billion, per PitchBook.
When interest in quick commerce was at its peak, Flink was valued at nearly $3 billion after an investment from DoorDash in December 2021 and just months later, it raised more funding that put its valuation close to $5 billion, according to sources.
And in April this year, it was rumored that Flink raised $106 million while exploring a sale to either Getir or Just Eat Takeaway. From what we understand, that capital was a mixture of bridge financing and other commitments that dated as far back as 2022. Since then, the erstwhile aggressive Getir has seriously retreated. However, some of those rumors were accurate, as Just Eat Takeaway indeed is in the mix. Today’s funding round, we are told, is a fresh deal.
The news of the new capital for Flink comes at the tail end of a tumultuous time in the instant delivery market.
This branch of e-commerce — in which online retailers offer a smaller assortment of goods that they house in distributed “dark stores” and offer for delivery in an hour or less — made a huge splash early during the COVID-19 pandemic. They came in as a handy way for consumers who were either sheltering in place or interested in maintaining social distance to get items they might have bought at a store in the past.
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