German Delivery Hero Buys Minority Stake In Gorillas Delivery Startup

Delivery Hero is backing on-demand grocery delivery platform Gorillas with a $235 million investment for an 8 percent stake in the company, leading the startup’s Series C funding round.

Niklas Östberg, Delivery Hero CEO and co-founder, said in a blog post on Tuesday (Oct. 19) that the investment in Gorillas aligns with its own strategy of driving quick commerce on the international stage. He pointed to Gorillas’s penetration in Europe and the U.S. and the startup’s “exceptional customer focus,” which has resulted in the “highest retention rates we have seen in the industry.”

“This has enabled them to reach over $300 million revenue run-rate in only one year with continued double-digit monthly revenue growth,” he added.

See also: Delivery Hero Adds Danish Platform Hungry

Gorillas’s funding round was also backed by Tencent, Coatue, DST, Dragoneer, and others, and raised almost $1 billion at a pre-money valuation of $2.1 billion.

Launched in 2020 and headquartered in Berlin, Gorillas’s offers last-mile on-demand delivery of grocery items and other essentials across nine countries — the U.K., the U.S., Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Spain. In six months, the company opened more than 140 warehouses and delivered 4.5 million orders.

Read more: Delivery Hero Buys Stake In Rival Deliveroo

Kağan Sümer, Gorillas's CEO and co-founder, said the funding will be used to further advance its “global ambition” and start the next leg of its journey as a company. He added that Delivery Hero’s vision aligns with its own and having its financial backing is a win.

Headquartered in Berlin, Delivery Hero operates in approximately 50 countries across Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa and began trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2017. Last year the company became part of the leading index DAX.

Launched in 2011 as a food delivery service, the company now runs its own platform on four continents. The company is also working on next-gen eCommerce — quick commerce — striving to bring groceries and other essentials to people in under an hour and often in 10-15 minutes.