The archive · Commerce & Marketplaces · Strategic decision · 2020–2024
Gorillas' 10-minute grocery bet: Europe's fastest unicorn, shut down by May 2024
Berlin startup bet 10-minute dark-store delivery would win grocery's last mile: $3B unicorn in 15 months, then a $1.2B Getir takeover and a 2024 shutdown.
Gorillas
What the business is
Berlin-based instant grocery delivery: order through the Gorillas app, couriers pick from neighborhood micro-fulfillment centers and deliver in about 10 minutes; a 'dark store' version of convenience retail.
Starting capital：$950M Series C at a $3B valuation (Sept 2021, Delivery Hero-led), after a $290M Series B and $44M Series A; sold to Getir in Dec 2022 in a deal valuing Gorillas at about $1.2B
How it started
Founded in Berlin in May 2020 by Kağan Sümer and Jörg Kattner during the first COVID lockdown, with a roughly €1.2M seed from Atlantic Food Labs. Sümer's thesis: supermarkets are built around the weekly bulk shop, leaving 'right now' purchases — a missing ingredient, a spontaneous craving — underserved, and the pandemic was pulling those purchases online.
What happened
Coatue led a $44M Series A in December 2020, then a $290M Series B (with DST Global and Tencent) in March 2021 at a valuation above $1B, making Gorillas one of Europe's fastest unicorns with 12+ cities and 40 micro-fulfillment centers. A $950M Series C led by Delivery Hero in September 2021 valued it at $3B as it expanded across Europe and into the US. Growth stalled as pandemic habits faded; rivals slashed prices while rider protests over working conditions and wage disputes mounted. In December 2022 Getir acquired Gorillas in a deal valuing the combined group at $10B and Gorillas at about $1.2B, then shrank the brand to a handful of German cities.
How it ended up
Gone: in April 2024 Getir announced it was exiting Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and the US to focus on Turkey; the Gorillas app stopped taking orders in Germany by mid-May 2024 and the brand was shut down.
Background
Gorillas was founded in Berlin in May 2020 by Kağan Sümer and Jörg Kattner on a simple bet: the weekly supermarket run was outdated, and the 'right now' slice of grocery shopping — a missing ingredient, a spontaneous craving — was a third of the market nobody served well. Using neighborhood micro-fulfillment centers and directly employed riders, it promised groceries in about 10 minutes at retail prices with a €1.80 delivery fee.
The pandemic made the timing look perfect. Coatue led a $44M Series A in December 2020; three months later Gorillas raised $290M at a valuation above $1B, becoming one of Europe's fastest unicorns, and a $950M Delivery Hero-led Series C in September 2021 valued it at $3B. It expanded from Berlin to 12+ cities and 40 dark stores, then across Europe and into the US.
The model's costs were brutal — thousands of riders, warehouses in expensive city districts, heavy discounting to win customers — and as lockdown habits faded and competition from Flink, Getir and others intensified, growth stalled. In December 2022 Getir bought Gorillas for about $1.2B, a fraction of its $3B peak, and shrank it. In April 2024 Getir announced it was exiting Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and the US; the Gorillas app was shut down by mid-May 2024.
What has to be true
- Unit economics never held at scale: dark stores in expensive neighborhoods, thousands of riders and a low flat fee required a volume that discount-driven competition kept unprofitable.
- Speed was the only differentiator and it was copyable — Flink, Getir and others promised the same minutes, turning the market into a subsidy war.
- Pandemic demand was mistaken for permanent demand: when shopping habits normalized, the growth that justified a $3B valuation vanished.
- Consolidation only delayed the end: acquirer Getir was itself unprofitable, cut Gorillas down to a few cities, then exited Europe entirely.
What can be applied
Speed alone is no moat: rivals copy it, and the stores, riders and subsidies behind it scale costs faster than revenue. Subsidized growth buys share, not loyalty — it evaporates when funding stops.
Aftermath
As of May 2024 Gorillas no longer operated: Getir closed its German operations by mid-May, cut roughly 1,800 jobs there, and exited the UK, the Netherlands and the US to concentrate on Turkey, backed by a fresh round led by Mubadala and G Squared. The Gorillas brand, once plastered across Berlin's streets and subway stations, disappeared with the quick-commerce wave it helped start; rival Flink remained Germany's market leader but still faced the same profitability question.
Sources
- Gorillas, the on-demand grocery delivery startup taking Berlin by storm, has raised $44M Series A
- Gorillas raises $290M and 'surpasses' $1B valuation
- This Week in Agrifoodtech: Gorillas raises $950m, New Age Meats nets $25m & more
- Getir Buys Grocery App Rival Gorillas In $1.2bn Deal: Report
- Getir pulls out of US, UK, Europe to focus on Turkey — 6,000+ jobs impacted
- Why two leading grocery delivery apps are leaving Germany in May
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