Getir Europe

Documented cause

Getir was founded in 2015 in Istanbul by Nazim Salur, Serkan Borançılı, and Tuncay Tutek, originally as a delivery app for convenience items in Turkey. The company invented the "10-minute grocery delivery" category, building a network of micro-warehouses called "dark stores" in Turkish cities before the concept existed globally. Getir raised $1.85B from investors including Mubadala, Sequoia, and Tiger Global, reaching a $12B valuation in 2022. International expansion began in 2021 with the UK, followed by Germany, Netherlands, France, and the US. Getir then acquired Gorillas (Germany, December 2022) and Gorillas' FLINK rival in certain markets. But each international market required massive subsidy to build density, and the company's burn rate across 9 simultaneous markets exceeded any sustainable funding model. Beginning in April 2024, Getir announced exits from the UK first (a market it had entered with great fanfare in 2021), then Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the United States in rapid succession. By mid-2024, all international operations had ceased, leaving Getir as a Turkey-only business at a fraction of its peak valuation.

Lesson

Failure anatomy