Remember the days when Getir had a valuation of $12 billion and seemed poised to become the Amazon of lightning-quick grocery delivery? Ah, memories. Getir announced Monday that it is closing operations in the U.S., Germany, the U.K., and the Netherlands. It will keep the lights on only in Turkey, where it got its start in 2015.
Getir’s pitch in its heyday was snappy and glorious: groceries in 15 minutes, from early in the morning to late at night. Investors shoved each other down stairwells to get in line. The company secured its first investment in 2017 and raised more than $2.3 billion through 2023, including an eye-popping $768 million in 2022. It also gobbled up competitors.
For a while it was on a glide path. Its app-download count jumped from 5.2 million in 2020 to 24.2 million in 2021 before declining to 6.5 million in 2023, according to AppFigures. Its annual revenues showed a similar trajectory, from $1 billion in 2021 to $800 million in 2023, as reported by Business of Apps.
That’s on the coming-in side. What was going out was remarkable.
Media reports estimate that it faced $100 million in costs every month. When you look at its model, you can see why. Getir acts as both a retailer and distributor. Unlike last-mile delivery competitors, who collect items from stores and charge for delivery, Getir buys its own inventory and stocks its own stores. When orders come in, staffers walk the aisles, grab items and give packages to riders on e-bikes. A logical enough way to do things. But crazy expensive.
Monday’s news didn’t come as a shock to industry observers. Getir has been stumbling for a while. Last July it pulled out of Spain, Italy and Portugal. And it reduced its workforce by 10 percent in the last year.
Yet the company isn’t done. It notes in a statement that the closed markets only represent 7 percent of its revenues. And it raised a new investment round led by an Abu Dhabi fund that wants to strengthen its food and grocery delivery footprint in Turkey.
For consumers outside Turkey, will Getir be remembered as simply a remnant of Covid times, like face masks and awkward elevator rides? Perhaps. Did the company scale too quickly? Almost certainly. Was it awesome to have Oreos delivered in 15 minutes? I mean yes. It’s not like Getir wasn’t on to something.
