Flink SE has announced the acquisition of French peer Cajoo, in a move that positions the former as the largest quick commerce operator in France.
The move boosts Flink's 'national expansion, assortment and customer base', it said in a statement, with the operator now serving more than six million customers across nine French cities.
The move also sees Flink tie-up with Carrefour, which was an early investor in and retail partner of Cajoo. With the move, Carrefour has become a direct shareholder in Flink, as well as its exclusive retail partner for the French market.
Leading The Quick Commerce Revolution
"Cajoo has done an amazing job in leading the quick commerce revolution in France and building a loyal customer base," commented Oliver Merkel, co-founder of Flink.
"We are happy to join forces under the Flink brand to create the Number One player in quick commerce in France. At the same time, we feel privileged to enter an exclusive partnership with Carrefour to offer the best assortment at competitive prices to our customers."
Flink said that it will commence the integration of existing hubs managed by Cajoo, after which it will serve Paris and the next eight big cities in France with some 30 delivery hubs.
It expects the conversion process to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2022.
The Cajoo brand has had a meteoric rise over the past year, with close to 450,000 orders placed in the first half of this year, and more than 400,000 users having downloaded the app since launch.
Common Values
"We are happy to find such great partners with the Flink team with whom we share common values, a similar vision on how to drive customer satisfaction and build a loyal customer base for sustainable growth for years to come," commented Henri Capoul, CEO of Cajoo.
"I am very 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."
Carrefour added that the Flink acquisition is a 'unique opportunity' for Carrefour to accelerate in the quick-commerce market in France, and will be a 'strong upside' for its e-commerce operations in the country.
Last December, Flink announced it had raised $750 million (€665.4 million) in an additional funding round.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest technology news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
