Two on-demand grocery apps are set to disappear from smartphones as Gopuff, the $15 billion delivery titan, takes on its first non-US market.

In the months before its UK launch today, it acquired Fancy and Dija, which will now “transition” to the Philadelphia-based company.

Using their infrastructure and customer base, Gopuff will establish an “immediate presence” in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield.

It aims to reach a further 24 cities by mid-2022.

READ MORE: Gopuff heads back to the future with new grocery stores

The multinational’s business model was said to be “prime for the UK market” given its “number of densely populated cities and increased market demand for instant needs services”.

Given Dija’s presence in Paris, Madrid and Valencia, Gopuff is likely to make a similar push onto mainland Europe.

Gopuff co-founder and joint chief executive Rafael IIishayev hailed the move as “game-changing”. 

Its technology and scale complemented the “local market knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit of the Fancy and Dija teams”, he said.

It is the latest multinational to make a move on Britain’s on-demand grocery market, where it faces competition from Gorillas, Getir and Deliveroo.

The news comes after the chief operating officer of Beelivery, another grocery startup, said most of these firms would “fail”.

Paul Gott claimed that companies reliant on “dark stores” – which include Gopuff – were being hurt by their “asset-heavy models”.

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