The instant delivery bubble has burst – investors have serious questions to answer

At least it was all over very quickly. With the news this week that Getir is exiting both the British and German markets, the instant delivery bubble has burst. The companies that would deliver a jar of mayonnaise, some shampoo, or, if you were throwing an impromptu party, a few bottles of gin, are all falling by the wayside. The trouble is, the venture capital houses that threw billions of investment at the industry now have some tough questions to answer. If they got this so badly wrong, it is hard to understand how they can be trusted with anyone’s money. At least there won’t be so many brightly coloured bikes clogging up city centre streets. The instant delivery company Getir announced last week that it was quitting the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and the US, and would focus instead on its home market in Turkey. It has already pulled out of France, Spain and Portugal. It is far from alone. Many of its rivals have already scaled back operations, or else closed their doors completely. If you need something delivered to your front door within the next few minutes there are far fewer options than there used to be....

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