ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Turkish fast grocery-delivery company Getir could hold another round of funding to finance its growth in the United States and would eventually like to expand to 300 cities in the country, Chief Executive Officer Nazim Salur said. The company attracted around $1 billion in three back-to-back funding rounds this year, putting its valuation at more than $7.5 billion. The rapid delivery service began operating in several European countries this year and launched in Chicago on Thursday, its first U.S. location. It will expand to New York and Boston by year-end. “There are 300 cities in the U.S. with a population of more than 100,000. We would like to be in all of these 300 cities in a certain time frame,” Salur said at a news conference on Thursday. He said the company could also make acquisitions to speed up its growth in the United States, and hopes to conduct its initial public offering in the United States and not in Turkey “when the times comes.” The company is awaiting approval from Turkey’s Competition Board to purchase a stake in e-commerce platform N11, he said, adding that it would buy shares from two partners in the company. Founded in 2015, Istanbul-based Getir pioneered the category of 10-minute delivery for customers who order by smartphone app, with riders fanning out from neighbourhood warehouses that stock essential groceries. With investor interest in the nascent industry at a peak and a full war chest, the company launched its ultra-fast “last mile” goods delivery service in Britain in January. In the past nine months, it has expanded to eight European countries including France, Germany and Spain. The coronavirus pandemic has been a boon to quick delivery firms including Gorillas and Flink as consumers avoided local shops and grew accustomed to shopping by app. The fast delivery model is not only drawing interest from venture capital funds but also traditional retailers, as it turns long-list grocery shopping to single-item impulse buying, which some investors say is more desirable for consumers. Getir’s latest series D round was led by existing investors including Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital, joined by Silver Lake, DisruptAD and Mubadala Investment Company. Reporting by Can Sezer and Ebru Tuncay; Writing by Ali Kucukgocmen and Daren Butler; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Subhranshu Sahu