Gorillas nabs nearly $1B in Series C funding led by Delivery Hero

Dive Brief:

Ultrafast delivery startup Gorillas announced on Tuesday it has raised nearly $1 billion in a Series C funding round led by German-based food-delivery service Delivery Hero, which said it invested $235 million.
The funding puts Gorillas at a pre-money valuation of $2.1 billion and gives Delivery Hero roughly 8% ownership of the company. Twelve other investors participated in the funding round, including existing investors DST Global, Tencent and Atlantic Food Labs and newcomers MSA Capital and Thrive Capital.
Gorillas said it will use the funds to invest more in its operations, technology and marketing as part of strategic growth initiatives in the increasingly competitive instant delivery space.

Dive Insight:

Gorillas is looking to gain ground in the battle among ultrafast delivery startups in Europe and New York City. The company claims its newly announced funding round is the largest of a non-listed business among Europe's grocery delivery sector.

Founded in May 2020, the German-based startup has expanded to more than 55 cities, including Amsterdam, London, Paris and Madrid, and operates more than 180 warehouses in nine countries.

The company brought its 10-minute service to New York City this spring and said at the time that it planned to enter other major U.S. cities by the end of the summer. But last month, Gorillas said it paused its U.S. expansion to instead focus on building its operations in the Big Apple.

But the new infusion of funds could change that, with Gorillas saying in the announcement that it is "now entering the next phase of its development, building a scalable and robust business infrastructure while accelerating future growth." Delivery Hero's CEO and co-founder Niklas Östberg said in a statement that Gorillas is "one of the leaders in Europe and the U.S."

While it's unclear how the company is looking at U.S. expansion in light of the new funding, Gorillas indicated it will focus on strengthening its operations in existing markets.

Gorillas' latest investment round follows $290 million in Series B funding the company raised in March.

In recent months, the company has taken steps to boost its image that include touting a focus on “sustainable” operations as it scales and filling top roles with people who have experience at prominent companies. Gorillas' new executives include Adrian Frenzel, former co-CEO of HelloFresh US, who was brought on as chief operating officer and Deena Fox, previously with Amazon and Jet, who became chief people officer.