Getir, the grocery delivery app which this month confirmed plans to exit the UK, has an outstanding debt to Tottenham Hotspur Football Club running to millions of pounds.
Sky News understands that Turkey-based Getir, whose three-year training kit sponsorship deal with Spurs expired at the end of the Premier League season on Sunday, owes close to £5m to the club.
News of the outstanding debt comes as Getir tries to access a tranche of agreed funding from major investors Mubadala and G Squared to help facilitate its withdrawal from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.
It was unclear this weekend whether the delivery app, which means “to bring” in Turkish, has the means to settle its financial obligations to Spurs.
The company once attained a valuation of almost £10bn, but has been forced by its deteriorating finances to retrench back to its home market, in the process axing thousands of jobs.
Its withdrawal from the UK has put about 1,500 jobs at risk, Sky News revealed earlier this month.
Companies such as Getir were big winners during the pandemic, attracting funding at astronomical valuations.
Its decline highlights the slumping valuations of technology companies once-hailed as the new titans of food retailing.
Many of its rivals have already gone bust, while others have been swallowed up as part of a desperate wave of consolidation.
Getir itself bought Gorillas in a $1.2bn stock-based deal that closed in December 2022.
Getir and Tottenham Hotspur both declined to comment.