Delivery Hero invests in gorillas

For months, the start-up has been trying to attract investors for a financing round, and now the Berliners have succeeded: The start-up raises one billion US dollars, Delivery Hero now holds eight percent of Gorillas with its investment.

First an investor bailed out, then the first rumors about an investment by Delivery Hero emerged, now there is confirmation: In a Series C funding round, the ten-minute delivery service has raised $1 billion, with $235 million coming from Delivery Hero. Existing investors such as the Chinese investor Tencent and the American investors Coatue, DST, Dragoneer and (Atlantic) Food Labs, who were already involved in the seed round of Gorillas, are also on board. New investors include G Squared, Alanda Capital and Thrive Capital.

Delivery Hero, which was only promoted to the Dax last year, thus receives eight percent of Gorillas. "With Delivery Hero, we have chosen a strong strategic supporter that is deeply rooted in the global delivery market," says Gorillas CEO Kağan Sümer. The Berlin-based company plans to invest the money from the current round in ongoing operations, technology and marketing.

In March, Gorillas had risen to unicorn status when it raised 290 million US dollars. Founded in 2020, the start-up operates in nine markets and says it has shipped 4.5 million orders in the past six months. Gorillas was actually looking to raise more than five million dollars with the current round of funding, according to a report from Gründerszene According to the current funding round, Gorillas wanted to be valued at five billion euros, now the valuation is likely to be 3.1 billion euros.

The bumpy search for investors can also be attributed to the increasing criticism of Gorillas. After all, the promise to deliver any purchase in ten minutes is leaving its mark on the employees: for months, the start-up's riders have been calling for strikes at regular intervals, their demands include higher wages and better working conditions. Time and again, employees from management show up at the strikes, but nothing has changed in terms of conditions, according to the riders. Only last week Gorillas terminated the demonstrators of the strikes without notice, currently labor courts in Berlin are examining the terminations.