London food delivery startup Deliveroo takes away $70m series C funding from Greenoaks Capital, Index Ventures, Accel and Hoxton Ventures
A London startup which delivers food from some of Britain's favourite high-street restaurants such as Wagamama and Gourmet Burger Kitchen straight to your door, has landed $70m (£45m) of new investment to expand internationally, including backing from the firm behind Just Eat.
Deliveroo's series C round was led by Greenoaks Capital and existing investor Index Ventures, coming just seven months after its last injection of cash and just over a year after its first round of venture capital investment.
Accel plunged cash into the premium food delivery company after leading a $25m round in January and Index along with Hoxton Ventures invested £2.7m series B in Deliveroo last June.
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The service, which only launched internationally in April with locations in Paris and Berlin, is planning ambitious global expansion with the cash, including Dubai, Barcelona, Milan, Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne on the map.
The two-year-old startup partners with restaurants which do not traditionally offer takeaway, including London’s Michelin-starred restaurant Trishna, providing the means to do so with a platform for managing orders and teams of delivery drivers who have an average delivery time of 32 minutes.
Deliveroo counts more than 2,000 restaurants including major chains as well as independent eateries such as Meat Liquor in London among its partners, and aims to grow that number when it expands in new markets. Partner restaurants have found using Deliveroo increases revenues for by up to 30 per cent – ”a win-win for all parties” said founder Will Shu.
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It will also expand to further cities in existing markets, already counting 18 cities in its UK home market.
The cash will also go on hiring increasing its headcount in the UK and abroad, in engineering, operations and sales – it currently employs 150 people, around 90 of which are based in the UK – and it will also embark on a marketing push to attract new customers, Shu told City PM
Since January, the company has already grown daily orders by 500 per cent and “even in mature markets like London that will still grow,” said Shu.
A former City trader from New York, he came up with the idea for the business when he came to work in London and found there was nowhere to get decent food delivered from when working late in the office.
The food delivery startup model has created an appetite among investors, already producing successfully Just Eat which floated last year and became a rare UK unicorn, valued at more than £1bn. Deliveroo is one of a few services delivering from people’s favorite restaurants rather than the traditional takeaway however. “The idea itself is incredibly simple. But We are successful because of our execution and technology,” said Shu.
Index also invested in Just Eat before it went public and has plunged millions of pounds into UK startups in recent weeks, with funding for luxury deals website Secret Escapes and high-end rental company Onefinestay.