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Europe’s Grocery Leader Rohlik Raises $170m to Accelerate Expansion

Rohlik is targeting revenues of over €1 billion with positive cash flow for the 2024 financial year.

QUICK TAKE

  • A European grocery leader, Rohlik has raised $170m in fresh capital
  • It comes as the company reached profitability in Munich, having already done so in its home market of the Czech Republic and Hungary. The company delivers over a million orders per month, and served over 800,000 customers in 2023.
  • The investment will be used to fuel Rohlik’s expansion plans across the DACH and CEE regions, where the company aims to establish its presence in more than 10 additional cities by 2030.
  • The ambitious growth plans set the company on a path towards an IPO in the coming years.

INDEX PERSPECTIVE
By Jan Hammer, Partner at Index Ventures

The growth numbers and the new capital injection are a testament to the continued ability of founder Tomáš Čupr and the Rohlik team to innovate and grow in the online grocery space. The company has been able to reach profitability in multiple markets while maintaining high growth, something that few competitors in the space have been able to achieve.

Their unique approach shows that they were able to find the perfect blend of

1/ The perfect consumer proposition. They bring together the best of local produce with top brands – 17,000 items in their one-stop-shop – and precise 15-minute delivery windows. They learned that most customers don’t need a small selection to be delivered instantly, but prefer a large assortment delivered in a time slot that suits their schedule.

2/ The tech to deliver on that premise. Rohlik has invested heavily into their fully automated fulfilment centres applying AI, ML and robotics technologies. That led them to be able to offer the best customer service and unparalleled operational efficiency.

3/ The best team leading the execution. Tomas who founded the company is one of the best operators out there, and has built a team that continues to deliver.

We look forward to continuing our support as the team expands to new cities and markets to firmly establish its position as one of Europe’s grocery leaders.

THE DETAILS

Amid COVID-19 lockdowns, grocery delivery companies across the board experienced accelerated growth. Today, Rohlik is one of the few European players to have successfully sustained this trajectory, having grown by 40% since the pandemic.

While many competitors aim to replicate online what a typical supermarket would offer, Rohlik has taken a different approach. The company focuses on sourcing best-in-class goods, such as fresh food from local farmers, butchers or fishmongers alongside more typical supermarket products, pharmacy items and private-label brands.

The company says that this approach, along with competitive prices, high attention to customer service and fast, reliable delivery powered by its proprietary technology infrastructure, is driving continued success.

Rohlik’s deliveries are enabled by its fully automated fulfilment centers which leverage a range of AI, ML and robotics technologies to drive efficiency and high productivity. The technologies are implemented across the business to provide customers with the best possible service at every step of the purchasing journey. It offers reliable 15-minute delivery windows and same-day deliveries as soon as one hour after checkout.

The company now delivers over a million monthly orders – 97% of which are on time – and served over 800,000 customers in 2023. It has reached profitability in Munich, having already done so in the Czech Republic and Hungary. In October 2023, Rohlik acquired Bringmeister, further strengthening its footprint in Germany.

To further fuel its ongoing expansion across the DACH and CEE regions, the company has now raised $170m in new funding.

With the company at near break-even in all its existing markets, the new funds will be used for growth and market penetration rather than operational needs. It is currently targeting revenues of over €1 billion with positive cash flow for the 2024 financial year.

“There is huge demand across Europe for online groceries delivered quickly and reliably without any compromise on quality. We don’t see that as a short-term phenomenon, but as a long-term opportunity around which to build a market-leading proposition,” explains Tomáš Čupr, founder and CEO of Rohlik Group.

“At Rohlik, we have built the technology to deliver on that promise in a sustainable and profitable way, leveraging AI, ML and robotics technology with our obsession with customer service to drive maximum efficiency and high productivity. This funding will allow us to accelerate our growth, opening facilities in more than 10 new cities, and set the standard in online grocery delivery across Europe.”

McKinsey estimates that as many as 30% of grocery sales could be online by 2030 in leading countries. Rohlik’s planned expansion into more than 10 additional cities will significantly boost its customer base, in line with the company’s long-term vision of becoming the leading online grocery delivery service not just in CEE, but across Europe. With a healthy mix of more mature profitable cities and earlier stage fast-growing cities, Rohlik says it now has a clear direction of travel towards an IPO in the coming years.

In this post: Rohlik

Published — June 28, 2024