The news: Flink, one of the latest rapid-grocery startups left standing, raised $150 million at a valuation of nearly $1 billion, per TechCrunch—a sign that there’s some life left in the once-booming sector.
The context: Flink’s funding round makes it a clear outlier in an industry where most companies have either gone bust or been scooped up by competitors—but like Gopuff and Getir, the startup had to drastically pare back its growth plans to accommodate shifts in consumer behavior as well as the rising cost of debt.