Remarks
Can the Mad Rush to Deliver Your Groceries in 10 Minutes Be Profitable?
Thanks to big investors and juicy margins, services such as Gorillas, Getir, and Gopuff could spell RIP for your local corner store.
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In New York, London, and other big cities, a new breed of couriers with names such as Gorillas, Getir, and Gopuff is promising to have basic groceries—bananas, six-packs of beer, Doritos, and such—at your front door in as little as 10 minutes.
For venture capitalists on the prowl for businesses that might benefit from a lockdown, these ultrafast grocery deliveries were an obvious outlet. In 2021 alone, investors pumped $3 billion into 13 such startups—an eightfold increase in cash from the previous year, according to research from PitchBook Data Inc. Getir’s July valuation of $7.6 billion means it’s worth more than Macy’s Inc. or Nordstrom Inc.