First victim in the whirlwind of “quick commerce”. Kol, the start-up that promises to “Delivers you[r] your shopping, meals and aperitifs day and night in twenty minutes “ initiated bankruptcy proceedings on December 6 with the Bobigny commercial court. Its fate will be sealed at the beginning of 2022: potential buyers have until January 5 at noon to submit an offer.
Today, with 17 employees, including 14 on permanent contracts, the SME was born in 2015 in a market of ultra-fast food shopping delivery which has experienced a phase of frenzy with the pandemic and the development of e-commerce. Since the beginning of the year, more than twenty start-ups, often from abroad, have embarked on this niche in France, hoping to speed up the distribution networks, thanks to deliveries to new schedules (seven days a week, from 7 am to midnight, for the most part) with their fleet of two-wheeled delivery men, for barely a few euros.
Hungry for capital to ensure rapid development and the conquest of market share, these new players in the food industry are attracting venture capital funds. Thus, the German Gorillas has raised nearly 1.3 billion dollars (1.1 billion euros) in several “rounds” of financing over the year 2021. His German rival, Flink, has for his share raised $ 750 million on Dec. 10, valuing it $ 2.1 billion. Among its new shareholders, Flink now counts the American Doordash.
In June, Turkey’s Getir, for his part, raised $ 550 million, valuing him $ 7.7 billion. This enabled him to participate in the consolidation of the sector. It recently acquired Weezy, the UK’s first high-speed grocery delivery company. The American Gopuff has taken over Fancy and Dija.
Astronomical sums
Large distributors also want their piece of the pie. On September 2, Carrefour entered the round table of French Cajoo, and Casino signed, on November 4, a strategic partnership with Gorillas, already a partner of Tesco, the historic British distributor.
But, frightened by the astronomical sums reached by the latest fundraising, investors did not follow Kol’s new demand for new money. “In April-May, we launched our fundraising process to raise 30 million euros, tells Baptiste Guez, the co-founder, to the magazine LSA who revealed the information. We had discussions with competitors to buy us out, but they were unsuccessful. Soon after, other competitors announced very significant fundraising. When they raise 250 million euros, it cools investors, who say that the competition is too tough. “
According to a study by the Kantar institute, “quick commerce”, still mainly concentrated in the Paris conurbation and a few large metropolitan areas, still remains marginal in terms of food consumption. Only 0.7% of French households declared, at the end of September, to have already used such a service. This figure rises to 1.6% for households in the Paris region. With customers flitting, according to Kantar, since on average, they tested four different websites.