German speedy grocery company Flink has acquired Cajoo, a French rival, as the long-predicted consolidation of the sector starts to gather pace.

The deal will see Cajoo’s thirty delivery hubs integrated within Flink’s operations by the end of this quarter. The figure Flink paid for Cajoo has not been disclosed.

Flink already had operations in Paris but the deal with Cajoo will see it move into eight other cities, including Toulouse, Lyon and Lille. Alongside France and Germany, Flink operates in Austria and the Netherlands.

As part of the deal French supermarket Carrefour, which led a $40m Series A round into Cajoo in September last year, will become the exclusive partner for Flink in France. Carrefour will also become a direct shareholder in Flink. 

Long-predicted acquisitions

Investors have long predicted consolidation within the speedy grocery market.  

Last year saw a large cohort of new players enter the industry in Europe — and a frenzy of big investment rounds to match. Now the downturn in tech stocks looks set to usher in an era of acquisitions sooner than some had expected.

Speaking to Sifted last year, Cajoo’s cofounder Henri Capoul said that the company had been in talks with several potential buyers, including US rival GoPuff. 

“The discussion with Gopuff was to eventually sell the company, but that was not the way we chose,” he said. 

Cajoo says it chose to raise more cash instead, though industry insiders tell Sifted that Gopuff pulled out at the last minute and acquired UK startup Dija instead. But with VC money no longer flowing so freely around the market, Cajoo has now chosen to say yes to Flink. 

Capoul says he’s “pleased to see how the French tech ecosystem is building great companies, appealing to the best EU companies as today’s news shows that we are getting acquired by the fastest growing company in the European market”.

Previous deals

The Flink-Cajoo deal echoes German speedy grocery company’s Gorillas acquisition of French rival Frichti in January this year. 

There’s been consolidation in the UK market too — Gopuff acquired not only Dija in August 2021 but also Fancy, another UK fast grocery delivery startup, in May.

Turkish startup Getir has also made a series of acquisitions, snapping up British startup Weezy and Spain’s Blok last year.

Freya Pratty is a reporter at Sifted. She tweets from @FPratty and writes our sustainability-focused newsletter — you can sign up here.