Spanish logistics startup Glovo receives €150M for ‘dark stores’; gears up for Q-Commerce

Barcelona-based Glovo, the on-demand delivery platform, today announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Swiss-based real estate firm, Stoneweg, and has raised €100M in funding as the company looks to expand its newly-launched Q-Commerce division.

Use of the raised capital

The agreement with Stoneweg will help build and refurbish prime city real estate in some of Glovo’s key markets. This will help accelerate the expansion of the brand’s infrastructure and fulfilment centres, as more retail partners sign up to its Q-Commerce offering. 

Oscar Pierre, co-founder and CEO of Glovo, says, “We believe that the third-generation of commerce is already upon us. Following the close of Stoneweg’s investment, we are consolidating our strategic commitment to Q-Commerce, which will allow us to better connect people with a wide variety of available products in their cities.”

Besides, Glovo’s initial focus will be on growing its network of dark stores in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Romania and additional countries under review in Europe.

A dark store is generally a large warehouse that can be used to facilitate a “click-and-collect” service, where a customer collects an item they have ordered online, or as an order fulfilment platform for online sales.

Currently, the company operates 18 dark stores globally in cities including Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon and Milan. And, the company is now looking to open similar stores in Valencia, Rome, Porto and Bucharest, among others. By 2021, the company aims to have 100 dark stores.

About Glovo

The company was founded in 2015 by Gerard Olive, Miguel Vicente, Oscar Pierre, and Sacha Michaud. Glovo’s mobile application connects customers with independent local couriers, who acquire goods from any restaurant or shop in a city and also deliver urgent packages for a variable fee. 

The platform’s features include geolocation, which allows customers to track their deliveries in real-time and locate the nearest glover (courier), thus optimising speed and distance.

Pierre says, “In the wake of COVID-19, we believe that dark stores represent the future of post-pandemic retail, and I think we’ll see a permanent shift in consumer habits towards same-day and instant delivery. We’re excited to continue to expand our offering, so that all types of businesses, from local independent stores to multi-national chains, can reach more and more customers thanks to new technological solutions and highly efficient infrastructure.”

To date, the delivery platform has delivered more than 12 million multi-category orders globally, and in 2020 it experienced a growth rate of more than 300 per cent year-on-year.

Glovo has partnered with brands such as Unilever, IKEA, Nestle, and L’Oréal, and supermarkets such as Carrefour, Continente, and Kaufland. It has more than 2.5 million monthly active users, over 25,000 associated partners worldwide, and operates in countries including EEMEA, LATAM, and Sub-Saharan Africa.