Reuters, March 1, 2019 – To satisfy the growing demand for home grocery delivery, two Czech online grocers, one of which is a start-up “unicorn” and the other of which is funded by a billionaire businessman, are competing with Europe’s largest supermarkets.
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As inflation and the Ukraine crisis cloud the economic picture, Rohlik’s founder and chief executive Tomas Cupr said the company was concentrated on making money in Europe’s largest economy after postponing ambitions to expand in Italy, Spain, and other regions.
Cupr told Reuters, “We will go considerably deeper in Germany than wider in markets we intended to a year ago. The company has contracted premises for fulfilment centers in Cologne, Essen, Berlin, and Düsseldorf, where it is headquartered.
“Europe is a 1 trillion euros in grocery sales market. You are looking at a blue ocean.”
Last June, Rohlik raised 220 million euros in a Series D financing round led by Belgian investor Sofina SOF.BR that valued the company at 1 billion euros ($1.06 billion), making it a rare “unicorn” among start-ups.
Rohlik and rival Kosik, backed by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, are both seeking to apply models that have been successful at home.
Although small in size, the Czech grocery delivery sector has developed faster than others in a fragmented European market that is expected to grow to $121 billion over the next four years from a current $73 billion, according to Statista.
