William Shu’s Deliveroo raises $480 million dollars in Series F Funding
Deliveroo, the restaurant meal delivery service co-founded by Greg Orlowski and William Shu, has raised $480 million dollars in Series F funding led by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and Fidelity Management & Research Company, mutual funds who have previously backed global technology companies including Amazon, Facebook and Tesla. Existing investors DST Global, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, and Accel Partners are also making follow-on investments, increasing their positions in the company. This values the company at over $2 billion dollars – making it the fastest growing UK tech company and one of Europe’s biggest tech success stories.
This new funding will allow Deliveroo to invest heavily in enabling more people to order great local restaurant food – quickly – to their front door. The company has three priority growth areas in which it will focus investment:
First, rapid growth in Deliveroo’s Editions programme of delivery-only kitchens which allow restaurants to expand without any of the traditional upfront costs.
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.
Third, rapid expansion into new towns, cities and countries. This will allow more people to order great food quickly to their door from their favourite local restaurants.
Will Shu, founder and CEO of Deliveroo, said: “I remember how excited I was carrying out our first delivery. I hoped that people would love being able to order great food from their favourite local restaurants straight to their front door. I am proud that just four years on, millions of people use Deliveroo in over 150 cities around the world. This is all thanks to the hard work of our riders, the great restaurants that we work with and our brilliant customers.
“So I am extremely pleased that our new investors share this vision and have decided to make such a significant investment in our future.
“With this funding we will invest further in our delivery-only kitchens Editions, in developing our technology and in taking Deliveroo to more towns and cities. This investment will take us to the next level and allow our riders to deliver ever more great food directly to people’s doors.”
Henry Ellenbogen, Portfolio Manager at T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund said: “Deliveroo has built an impressive service that is providing fast delivery of high quality food in over 150 cities across the world. We believe they have a world class team, strong technology capabilities, and the right business model that provides them the potential to be much larger over time. We are excited to see this capital put to use to build out their Editions concept and expand their geographic footprint.”
“Deliveroo is a global innovation leader in technology, logistics and food”, said Tom Stafford, Managing Partner at DST Global. “We are excited to continue our partnership with Will and the team at Deliveroo as they build the future of food delivery.”
About Deliveroo
Deliveroo is an award-winning delivery service founded in 2013 by William Shu and Greg Orlowski. Deliveroo works with 30,000 best-loved restaurants, as well as 30,000 riders to provide the best food delivery experience in the world.
Deliveroo is headquartered in London, with more than 1,000 employees in offices around the globe. Deliveroo operates in over 150 cities across 12 countries, including Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
Prior to this funding, Deliveroo has raised a total of $475M comprised of five funding rounds, with its Series E round closing in August 2016.
For further information visit deliveroo.co.uk