Amazon-backed Deliveroo snaps up pre-IPO funding of €149M from existing investors, valued at $7B

The competition to gobble up the European market among food delivery companies is getting more fierce day by day. The online food delivery marketplace is becoming a very lucrative industry and is set to grow to a whopping $200 billion by 2025. 

A few days back Delivery Hero, a Berlin-based food delivery company raised €1.25B by issuing new shares to institutional investors. Just Eat TakeAway, on the other hand, is making some crucial investments to strengthen its position in the market.

Raised €149M at $7B valuation

In a recent move, Deliveroo, a London-based food delivery platform that allows users to order food from local restaurants, secured an additional $180M (approx €149M) in a Series H funding round, valuing the business at over $7B (approx €5.7B). This brings the total funding raised by Diliveroo to €1.5B. 

The round was led by existing investors — Durable Capital Partners LP and Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC. This funding round comes as Deliveroo is set to hold an initial public offering in the coming months, most probably in April. 

Develop new tech tools

The online food delivery company will use the funding to further invest in expanding delivery-only kitchen sites, allowing more restaurants to take orders from their websites, and increasing the on-demand grocery deliveries and subscription services.

Will Shu, founder, and CEO of Deliveroo said: “This investment will help us to continue to innovate, in developing new tech tools to support restaurants, to provide riders with more work and to extend choice for customers, bringing them the food they love from more restaurants than ever before.”

Helped local restaurants during COVID

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Deliveroo claims to have helped local restaurants by reducing onboarding fees, developing new services such as Table Service, as well as charging 0% commission on Pick Up orders. Notably, the company also supported the NHS throughout the pandemic, delivering hundreds of thousands of free meals.

Expansion in 2021

Following strong growth in 2020, the company plans to expand its services into around 100 new towns and cities across the UK IN 2021. The cities and towns include – Yeovil, Bangor (Northern Ireland), East Kilbride, King’s Lynn, Scarborough, Llanelli, and Exmouth.

As per the company’s claims, it has been profitable for over six months at the operating level in 2020. 

Furthermore, the company partnered with major supermarket brands including Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Aldi,and Carrefour to grow its on-demand grocery offering amid the pandemic. 

Over 46,000 restaurants joined the platform in 2020, and the company now works with more than 140,000 restaurant partners globally.

Also, Deliveroo will also be expanding its reach in around 150 of the areas it currently operates in, such as Glasgow and the home counties. 

Carlo Mocci, Chief Business Officer UKI, Deliveroo says: With further lockdown measures now in place across the UK, we want to do everything possible to help households get the food they need and want and play our role to make sure families across the country have a wide selection of amazing food, drinks, and household products to order in as little as 30 minutes.”