- Delivery startup Buyk was founded by Russian retail veterans Slava Bocharov and Rodion Shishkov.
- Its founders were financing it, leading to liquidity issues due to restrictions on Russian money.
- Buyk’s CEO is weighing options, but says it will need “some decisions made by end of today.”
Buyk, the ultrafast startup founded by Russian entrepreneurs, is in a cash crunch. After furloughing all employees and closing its dark store operations in New York and Chicago, it has now reinstated its CEO as he looks for solutions for his ailing company.
“What I would say is we are looking at any and all options,” Buyk CEO James Walker said in an interview with Insider this morning. “Priority number one is taking care of our people. That’s the single most important thing to myself and to my partners.”
But time is running out. “We really need to have some decisions made by end of today — a lengthy acquisitions process is probably not in the cards,” he said.
The startup, which is US-based, had raised $46 million and had expanded quickly this year, but Buyk’s founders were still “providing bridge financing to Buyk until we close our next investment round,” the company previously said in a statement.
The ultrafast player got its start as a spin-off of Samokat, a grocery delivery service that operates in large Russian cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg. It was founded by Russian retail entrepreneurs Slava Bocharov and Rodion Shishkov.
“Funding from our founders and other org became very very difficult, not specifically because of the sanctions — our founders are not sanctioned — but Vladimir Putin has put restrictions on Russians in general and their ability to send money,” Walker said.
Now, Walker said he is looking at a variety of options. “We are talking to everyone we should be talking to,” he said. Additional funding, an acquisition, or working with another delivery company to find employment for its workforce are all options on the table he said.
“We are doing everything we think we can possibly do to take care of our employees,” he added.
Buyk, pronounced “bike,” launched its dark-store operation in New York City in mid-September.
Two months later, it appointed restaurant industry veteran Walker to lead the fast-growing company.
At the time of Walker’s appointment, Buyk had more than 20 micro-fulfillment locations in New York, a city teeming with rival players including Getir, Gopuff, DoorDash, Jokr, and Fridge No More. The latter has Russian investors, as well, but its app is still operational.
With Buyk’s operations on hold, the competitive rapid delivery space has suddenly lost one of the best players in the space, Brittain Ladd, a retail consultant who follows the delivery space told Insider. “Nobody knows at this stage when or if they’ll return,” he said.
“Two companies are helped most by this in the US — Gorillas and Getir. In all honesty, the rapid grocery delivery industry is now a two-horse race,” he said.
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