Fundraising amount of selected quick-commerce startups 2022

Between October 2020 and December 2021, U.S.-based quick commerce startup Gopuff - which delivers convenience products within minutes - received investments for up to 1.7 billion U.S. dollars. That means that in just over a year, the company raised almost half of its total funding, which in March 2022 amounted to 3.4 billion dollars. Launched amid a health emergency, Berlin-based startups Gorillas and Flink had raised some 1.3 billion and 1.1 billion dollars, respectively, by that date.

What is quick commerce?

Quick commerce, or Q-commerce, is a term used to describe the form of e-commerce that aims at high-speed delivery of orders with small quantities of products. The pandemic acted as a catalyst for companies dedicated to this segment, as instant delivery became one of the most demanded logistics services after the COVID-19 crisis. In terms of speed of on-demand deliveries, companies like Gorillas, Getir, and Flink set the bar high, with average delivery times as low as 10 minutes.

Doubling down on high-speed delivery

Various third-party platforms offering on-demand fulfillment are increasingly betting on quick commerce. German delivery giant Delivery Hero is a prime example of this. The company launched its first delivery-only supermarket, Dmart, in Turkey in 2019. By November 2021 had expanded its speedy delivery service to a total of 43 countries. Delivery Hero invested further in quick commerce by acquiring Spanish food delivery company Glovo in 2022, along with its ultra-fast delivery vertical Glovo Express.