Born in the wake of the pandemic, nourished by venture capital funds, ultra-fast delivery is restructured, in search of a hypothetical profitability.
by Cécile Boutelet ( Berlin, correspondence)
The era of free money is over, and the first victims appear. In Germany, the acquisition of the Gorrillas delivery man by his Turkish competitor Getir, announced on Friday December 9, is a decisive sign of a decrease in investments and an acceleration of concentration in the rapid delivery sector, or “Quick trade “, which has never proven its profitability.
The value of Gorillalas is now estimated by financial circles at $ 1.2 billion (1.33 billion euros), the new set gets to $ 10 billion. For both companies, it is a big discount compared to their last fundraising.
Gorillalas is emblematic of the emergence of an activity with the deficit economic model, whose players are maintained on the market only thanks to the injections of venture capital funds. The Berlin company, founded in early 2020, took off in the favor of confinements linked to the Pandemic of COVID-19.
Its principle: deliver current consumption products, in ten minutes, thanks to bicycle couriers equipped with backpacks. An aggressive growth strategy has allowed Gorillas to conquer the most promising streets of German and European metropolitan areas in a few months, but also from London and New York.
To the point of making people believe to give birth to an investment fever among investors. In 2021, less than two years after its launch, Gorillalas acquired the status of unicorn, an formerly rare title of companies valued at more than a billion dollars. In the spring of 2022, she had even bought her French competitor Frichti.
This growth ended as quickly as it started. European pioneer, Gorillalas was also very early confronted with contradictions the ultra-fast delivery: the start-up, specialized in an activity with already low margins, burned several million euros in capital every month to maintain its position. The one who presented herself as a “community” tried to limit losses by saving on staff costs … and had to face very large social movements among her deliverers, who complained about working conditions.
Depending on the fundraising that has become random, the star Gorillala has definitively lost its shine with the arrival of the crisis. It is one of the first “unicorns” to undergo the conjunction of conjuncture linked to the rise in interest rates, the increase in food prices, logistics costs and the scarcity of staff.
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