European grocery delivery service Picnic has raised €600m (US$700m) in a Series D financing round to fuel its plans for growth. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust led the round along with existing shareholders.
The new investment will accelerate the roll-out of Picnic in Europe, especially Germany and France. Investments in automated fulfillment centers, electric vehicles and the expansion of Picnic’s tech team are a long-term requirement for growth. The sustainable concept, in which groceries are delivered for free to customers’ homes with electric vehicles – while avoiding food waste – is one of the main transformational elements of the Picnic model.
Launched in 2015, Picnic pioneered a ‘modern milkman’ concept with a scheduled delivery service using small electric vehicles, reliable minute precise delivery and friendly service that has rapidly expanded across more than 200 cities in the Netherlands, Germany and France.
Joris Beckers, co-founder, Picnic, said, “Making the global food system more sustainable is one of the biggest and most important challenges of our generation. We made it our mission to build an entirely new food distribution system that revolutionizes how people buy groceries. We will continue to invest in our expansion and technological lead to the benefit of our customers. We’re extremely proud to have the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation trust as an investor to enable our continued growth.”