AMSTERDAM, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Picnic, an online grocery service based in the Netherlands, has raised 600 million euros ($706 million) in funding to speed its expansion, the company said on Thursday.

Picnic, which was founded in 2015, has grown quickly in the Netherlands and is expanding in Germany and to France.

It said investors behind the latest fund raising included The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust.

Orders made via Picnic's service are delivered straight from distribution hubs to customers' front doors at an appointed time by small electric vans.

Picnic said in a statement it expected to have "about 1 billion euros in run rate sales by the end" of 2021.

Dutch Chamber of Commerce records show the company reported a loss of 41 million euros on sales of 210 million euros in 2019, the most recent filing available.

A spokesperson for the company said it now operated its service in around 200 cities.

($1 = 0.8502 euros) (Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Edmund Blair)