If you thought the speedy delivery hype was over, think again. Turkish grocery delivery startup Getir has just raised $768m at a valuation of $11.8bn. 

The round was led by Mubadala, and includes previous investors Sequoia and Tiger Global, as well as the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund and Alpha Wave Global. 

Getir, which last June raised $550m in Series D funding at a valuation of $7.5bn, plans to use the capital to cement its position as the leader in this industry. 

“In such an exciting and competitive market we cannot afford to stand still,” said Getir founder Nazim Salur. 

The Turkish business, founded in 2015 by Salur, is one of the oldest and most valuable speedy grocery companies globally. Ahead in the race is US-based company GoPuff, which in December raised $1.5bn with a valuation of up to $40bn. 

👉 Getir rethinks investment links to ‘Putin crony’ Potanin

Getir has over 1,100 dark stores — micro-fulfilment centres based in local neighbourhoods — across Europe and the US. It’s live in 81 cities across nine countries: the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Turkey and the US. The company says its app has been downloaded “close to” 40m times, and that it is delivering almost one million orders daily. 

In 2021, Getir expanded quickly across Europe — and announced plans to expand to the US. It is the first European speedy grocery business to hop across the Atlantic. 

It’s also been pretty successful at eating up the competition. Last year, it bought Spanish delivery grocery startup Blok and UK delivery startup Weezy — major moves in a sector that is seeing mass consolidation. 

Getir says it has created 30,000 jobs globally.

Controversy

It’s not all rosy for Getir. Last week, flyers were handed out in major European cities, including Berlin, which alleged that Getir is being funded by friends of Vladimir Putin.

Russian VC Winter Capital – which participated in Getir’s Series D round in June last year and has a 0.45% stake in the $7.7bn-valued company – was financed by Interros, an investment fund founded and run by Vladimir Potanin, a billionaire oligarch who is supposedly linked to Putin.

Turkish speedy grocery company Getir says it will reassess its links to Russian VC firm Winter Capital should  Winter Capital face sanctions. 

Miriam Partington is Sifted’s Germany correspondent. She also covers future of work, coauthors Sifted’s Startup Life newsletter and tweets from @mparts_

Amy Lewin is Sifted’s editor. Follow her on Twitter @amyrlewin.