With a distinctive business model that is midway between a speedy delivery service and an online supermarket, Czech company Rohlik sees opportunities to conquer Europe. The war chest is well filled: the startup recently raised 100 million euros.
From 3 to 8 countries
Rohlik Group completed a successful financing round this week: the company raised 100 million euros and is now valued at 1 billion euros. A ‘unicorn’, in other words. The Czech pure player has been active for six years and today serves about 750,000 customers in its home market, in Hungary and in Austria. Last year, Rohlik had a turnover of more than 300 million euro.
But now that online shopping has received a boost, partly due to the corona crisis, the company wants to use the momentum to expand rapidly in Europe. In the coming months, the online supermarket plans to launch in Germany – starting in Munich – followed by Romania, Italy, France and Spain. “With the high penetration of mobile shopping, we have a chance to disrupt groceries in Europe,” founder and CEO Tomáš Čupr of The Rohlik Group told Techcrunch.
High spend
What is the success formula of the Czech start-up? The business model combines the speed of flash deliveries with the wide choice and service of classic online supermarkets. Rohlik delivers the groceries to your home within two hours. That is slower than the 15 minutes that the couriers of Gorillas or Getir promise, but much faster than classic supermarkets or pure players like Picnic. Moreover, customers can choose from more than 17,000 products. A full range, compared to the 1,000 to 1,500 products in the dark stores of the delivery apps.
The online player aims at the weekly groceries, not at impulse purchases: the average spending amounts to 60 to 100 euros. Rohlik buys a large part of its assortment locally, from farmers and artisanal manufacturers. This gives them the opportunity to grow. In addition, the company calls on partners, including Marks & Spencer. The online supermarket is developing its own brands for meat and dairy, other categories will follow.
Finally, Rohlik’s choice to enter each market under a different name is remarkable: in Hungary they are called Kifli.hu, in Austria Gurkerl.at, in Germany Knuspr.de.
