Getir, the grocery delivery app once valued at nearly $12bn (£9.7bn), is close to pulling the plug on its operations in Britain in a move that would spark concerns for well over 1,000 jobs.
Sky News has learnt that Getir is preparing to announce next week that it is withdrawing from the three remaining European markets in which it operates: the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.
In total, thousands of jobs will be put at risk, including approximately 1,500 in the UK, according to people close to the situation.
The process through which Getir, which has a multimillion-pound commercial partnership with the Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur, plans to exit the UK was unclear on Friday.
Insiders said, that it could involve a sale of its assets or an insolvency procedure although they added that no decisions had been taken.
Getir has previously denied that any form of insolvency was on the cards for the group or its subsidiaries.
The company is understood to have drafted in restructuring advisers in recent days, while Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi fund that is one of its biggest shareholders, is being advised by AlixPartners.
Getir’s plans to exit the UK and other markets will leave it with operations in the US and Turkey only.
Ultimately, it is expected to seek to operate solely in Turkey, where it was founded.
Meaning ‘to bring’ in Turkish, Getir expanded at breakneck speed to become of the world’s most valuable fast-delivery platforms.
Earlier this week, Sky News reported that the company was weighing a string of asset sales, including FreshDirect, a US-based online grocer it only acquired late last year, as part of efforts to repair its balance sheet.
Getir was valued at nearly $12bn (£9.7bn) just two years ago, and has sought to acquire a number of rivals which have run into financial trouble.
The company has already pulled out of a number of countries, including Italy and Spain, in an attempt to reduce losses.
Its retreat highlights the slumping valuations of technology companies once-hailed as the new titans of major economies.
As well as Mubadala, Getir is backed by prominent tech investors including Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global.
The company was one of the hottest start-ups of the pandemic, when financiers rushed to plough billions of dollars into businesses they believed would benefit from structural shifts in the economy.
It raised more than $750m in a funding round in early 2022, but has seen its valuation slump since then.
Last September, Getir also announced a sharp cut in the size of its workforce, axeing roughly 2,500 jobs, or about 10% of its global employee base.
Founded in 2015, Getir was one of a crop of companies promising city-based consumers rapid delivery of groceries and other essential products.
During the COVID crisis, the industry saw sales explode, with emerging trends such as working from home fuelling investor confidence that the boom was sustainable.
Many of its rivals have already gone bust, while others have been swallowed up as part of a desperate wave of consolidation.
Getir itself bought Gorillas in a $1.2bn stock-based deal that closed in December 2022.
“Getir principally doesn’t comment on rumours,” a spokeswoman said on Friday.