Dutch online supermarket Picnic has bagged a cool €355mn in funding after a year of international expansion, the company announced today.

The grocery delivery service launched in the Netherlands back in 2015, before later entering France and Germany. Picnic said that the expansion across Europe helped the business grow by 40% in 2023. Turnover for the year reached an estimated €1.25bn.

A particularly thriving new market is Hamburg, which hit a turnover of €40mn just six months after launching last April. That made it Picnic’s fastest-growing city.

In the Netherlands, meanwhile, the recent growth has come from adding new customers in existing cities.

“We approach it in Germany and France in the same way as we did in the Netherlands a few years ago,” Picnic co-founder Joris Beckers said in a statement (translated from Dutch via Google Translate).

“We are building distribution centres and opening hubs in cities such as Hamburg, Berlin, and Paris. We will then roll out grocery delivery district by district.

“Compared to the Netherlands in the first years, we are growing even faster in Germany and France. In addition, the investments in robotisation further improve profitability and strengthen our unique market position.”

The new investment includes funding from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. Picnic plans to spend the cash on further international expansion.