// STARTUP COMPARISON
Delivery Hero Europe Exit vs Aplazame
Delivery Hero Europe Exit failed in 2022 due to Competition. Aplazame failed in 2022 due to Acquisition Gone Wrong. Different causes, different sectors, different eras — but the same simulation outcome.
| METRIC | 🔥 Delivery Hero Europe Exit | 🔥 Aplazame |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Marketplace | Fintech |
| Country | Germany | Spain |
| Founded | 2011 | 2013 |
| Died | 2022 | 2022 |
| Raised | €6B+ | €15M |
| Peak | €14B valuation (2021) | Acquired by WiZink 2017 |
| Primary Cause | Competition | Acquisition Gone Wrong |
// WHY EACH FAILED
🔥 Delivery Hero Europe Exit
Competition
Delivery Hero exited Germany (its home market) in 2018 by selling Lieferheld, Pizza.de, and foodora to Takeaway.com for €930M — reasoning it could not compete with Deliveroo and Uber Eats in Germany while expanding globally. In 2022, it also sold its Foodpanda operations in Central and Eastern Europe (Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic, Bulgaria) to Bolt Food for €200M. These exits followed Delivery Hero spending €3B+ on Gorillas investment and write-downs, Glovo grocery write-downs, and a share price that fell 85% from peak. The company that built the world's food delivery infrastructure retreated to Asia.
// LESSON
Winning the global food delivery war by exiting your home market is an oxymoron. Germany was Delivery Hero's most efficient market — the one where they had density, brand, and profitability. Selling it to fund global expansion meant funding expansion from a permanently weaker position.
Winning the global food delivery war by exiting your home market is an oxymoron. Germany was Delivery Hero's most efficient market — the one where they had density, brand, and profitability. Selling it to fund global expansion meant funding expansion from a permanently weaker position.
🔥 Aplazame
Acquisition Gone Wrong
Aplazame was Spain's early BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) leader, acquired by WiZink Bank in 2017 for an undisclosed sum. Post-acquisition, Aplazame was integrated into WiZink's consumer finance products and its brand gradually disappeared. By 2022, Aplazame as an independent product no longer existed — absorbed into WiZink's broader offering while global BNPL leaders like Klarna and Afterpay dominated the space the company had pioneered.
// LESSON
Being acquired by a traditional bank as a fintech is not an exit — it is a slow disappearance. Banks acquire to neutralize competition, not to scale the product. Aplazame pioneered BNPL in Spain and ended up as a footnote in WiZink's product catalog.
Being acquired by a traditional bank as a fintech is not an exit — it is a slow disappearance. Banks acquire to neutralize competition, not to scale the product. Aplazame pioneered BNPL in Spain and ended up as a footnote in WiZink's product catalog.
// EXPLORE FURTHER