Picnic, an online grocery service based in the Netherlands, has raised €600 million ($706 million) in funding to speed up its expansion, the company said.
Picnic, which was founded in 2015, has grown quickly in the Netherlands and is expanding in Germany and to France.
It said investors behind the latest fund raising included The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust.
Orders made via Picnic's service are delivered straight from distribution hubs to customers' front doors at an appointed time by small electric vans.
Picnic said in a statement it expected to have "about €1 billion in run rate sales by the end" of 2021.
Financial Performance
Dutch Chamber of Commerce records show the company reported a loss of €41 million on sales of €210 million in 2019, the most recent filing available.
A spokesperson for the company said it now operated its service in around 200 cities.
In July of this year, the online grocery announced plans to develop a new automated fulfilment centre at Hessenpoort business part in Zwolle, construction of which will commence in November of this year.
According to media reports, it entered into a new purchasing partnership with German supermarket chain Edeka last year, replacing its partnership with the wholesale purchasing organisation, Superunie.
As much as a third of physical retail store space could be dedicated to online fulfilment in the future, a new study by Edge Retail Insight has found, as e-commerce sales reach 34.8% share of the global retail market by 2023.
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