Deliveroo raises almost $500m in new funding
Deliveroo is now valued at over $2 billion dollars.
British technology company Deliveroo has raised a further $98m to close its Series F funding round, bringing the total raised to $482m.
This comes as Deliveroo announces that as of 21st November it will be operating in 200 cities worldwide. Deliveroo’s 200th city will be Cannes in France, where Deliveroo will begin serving customers on Tuesday.
The Series F funding round has been led by T. Rowe Price Associates and Fidelity Management & Research Company, and other investment managers. Existing investors DST Global, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, and Accel Partners also made follow-on investments, increasing their positions in the company. Additional funding was completed by private investors.
As one of the largest ever investment into a tech company in the UK or Europe, it aims to boost innovation within the UK restaurant sector and support technological developments.
The company has three priority growth areas in which it will focus investment. First is the rapid growth in Deliveroo’s Editions programme of delivery-only kitchens which allows partner restaurants to expand without any of the traditional upfront costs, whilst increasing food selection for customers and optimising delivery times. Second, growth of its technology team, who will focus on continuing to make improvements to Deliveroo’s world-leading real-time logistics algorithm and artificial intelligence systems while improving riders’ working experience and continuing to develop Deliveroo’s products for restaurants and consumers. And third is the rapid expansion into new towns, cities and countries to allow more people to order food quickly to their door from their local restaurants.
The investment will enable Deliveroo to expand further, which will benefit the wider UK economy.
Will Shu, founder and CEO of Deliveroo, said, "This new investment will help Deliveroo to expand in the UK and around the world, bringing ever more great food directly to people’s doors. This is all thanks to the hard work of our riders, the great restaurants that we work with and our brilliant customers.
“The next exciting phase of the UK restaurant industry will see more power being handed to the consumer, with restaurants better able to cater for consumers’ needs because they have richer data to work with. This investment will help to accelerate this process, bringing more people more choice, healthier options and new food. As our technology improves deliveries will become faster and our selection on offer will become more varied. This is great news for the UK economy as it will help to create work in restaurants as well as well-paid, flexible work for our riders.”
