Amsterdam’s Picnic Secures €430M To Accelerate German Growth

The company plans to direct the majority of the capital toward strengthening its position in Germany.

The new funding will accelerate Picnic’s expansion into additional regions and cities, supported by investments in new distribution centres and related infrastructure.

Picnic will officially present the funding round later today at the 120th anniversary event of the German-Dutch Chamber of Commerce in The Hague (NL), attended by Minister of Economic Affairs Vincent Karremans and German State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Energy Frank Wetzel.

The company says the milestone underscores strong cross-border collaboration between its Dutch and German teams, reflecting its broader ambition to build a unified European online grocery network.

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Germany has roughly five times the population of the Netherlands and nearly nine times its land area. To reach a significant share of German households, Picnic says it must make major infrastructure investments to match the scale it has already built in the Netherlands. The company reports that growth in Germany has accelerated since launch, with plans for continued expansion. Picnic is already operationally profitable in its home market.

Founded in 2015 after three years of development, Picnic expanded its no-fee delivery model across the Netherlands and now serves two million customers in two hundred cities through seven distribution centres. The company entered Germany in 2018 and France in 2021.

Picnic will formally present its new investment round this afternoon at the 120th anniversary event of the German-Dutch Chamber of Commerce in The Hague, attended by Minister of Economic Affairs Vincent Karremans and German State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Energy Frank Wetzel.

Michiel Muller, co-founder of Picnic, says, “The collaboration between software developers and operational staff from both countries demonstrates the strength of cross-border cooperation and the building of a European market leader in online grocery shopping.”

Three years ago, Picnic launched a robotic distribution centre in Utrecht. Its new facility in Oberhausen is now piloting robopicking technology, where robots pick and place groceries into customer crates. The system supports more than 15,000 products, each with unique handling requirements, creating a highly complex operating environment for the robots.

Muller adds, “A carton of eggs needs to be handled differently than a bottle of olive oil. Visual AI is used for this, which mimics human vision. Artificial intelligence understands what it sees and acts appropriately.”

Picnic was founded in 2015 by Michiel Muller, Frederik Nieuwenhuys, Joris Beckers, and Bas Verheijen. Before launch, the team spent three years developing a model to deliver groceries directly to customers without added steps in the supply chain. A core team of 30 built the route-based delivery system that remains central to the service today.

Customers choose a delivery route that suits their schedule and receive an exact timeslot via Picnic’s grocery radar. This efficient distribution model keeps operating costs low, enabling the company to offer free delivery.

After establishing itself in the Netherlands, Picnic expanded into Germany in 2018 and France in 2021, bringing its streamlined approach to new markets.