Getir, one of the world’s largest grocery delivery platforms, is in talks about a radical restructuring just two years after it was valued at nearly $12bn (£9.6bn).
Sky News has learnt that Getir, which was founded in Turkey and now operates in five markets including the UK, is examining a number of options as part of talks with its leading investors.
Sources said this weekend that this could involve a break-up of the rapid delivery group, an exit from a number of its remaining markets or some form of emergency restructuring mechanism.
A source close to the company denied that any form of insolvency process was under consideration, saying that if it decided to exit a country it would do so “in an orderly fashion”.
Another insider added that the next few days were “make or break” for the company, with key decisions about Getir’s future expected to be taken as early as the next fortnight.
A drastic restructuring could put thousands of jobs at risk across the markets in which it operates, although further details of the options under consideration were unclear this weekend.
AlixPartners, the restructuring firm, is understood to be advising on the situation at Getir.
The crisis talks highlight the slumping valuations of technology companies once-hailed as the new titans of major economies.
At one point, Getir was valued more highly by private investors than Marks & Spencer and J Sainsbury combined.
Getir is backed by prominent investors including Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, 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.
Getir, which means ‘bring’ in Turkish, was valued at $11.8bn when it raised more than $750m in a funding round in early 2022.
By the autumn of last year, when it secured a further $500m from existing backers, it was worth just $2.5bn.
In the last year, a string of ‘unicorn’ companies have been forced to accept huge valuation discounts in order to secure the funding necessary to survive.
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.
It also pulled out of Italy, Portugal and Spain.
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, however, 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.
“Our business is very agile and fast-paced,” a Getir spokeswoman said on Saturday.
“Getir principally doesn’t comment on rumours or on internal matters, however, whenever decisions have been made, we will announce them as we have done in the past.”