With Just Eat’s recent multi-billion dollar IPO, along with heavy competition from Rocket Internet’s FoodPanda, and heavily-backed Delivery Hero, you’d be forgiven for thinking the online take-out delivery platform space was sewn up in the UK and Europe. But actually, online food delivery remains a fertile market. A number of startups have cropped up which are attempting to reach parts of the market the likes of Just Eat don’t really cater for yet. Namely, in the case of Deliveroo, food delivery from premium restaurants that don’t traditionally offer a take-out service. Today the London-based company has closed a £2.7 million series A round led by Index Ventures, with participation from new VC kid on the block, Hoxton Ventures, along with a number of individual investors. The Index connection perhaps shouldn’t come as surprise. Deliveroo’s Leonard Picardo was previously at the London-based VC firm, and is sometimes considered as a co-founder, though technically he joined after the startup was founded by William Shu and Greg Orlowski.
London-based food delivery platform Deliveroo today announced the completion of a £2.75m round of funding, set to back an expansion of its offering across the UK and internationally. Founded in February 2013 by William Shu and Greg Orlowski, Deliveroo works as a managed delivery platform for restaurants, allowing them to offer a takeaway service to diners without having to manage the technology or logistics themselves. The start-up says its restaurant partners can increase revenues by 10% to 20% by adding a delivery service using the Deliveroo platform. Since launch Deliveroo has grown rapidly, with high-profile clients including Carluccio’s and Tommi’s Burgers now signed up to the platform and “strong demand” from customers – the start-up claims that one user has already spent in excess of £15,000 on the site. The £2.75m funding was led by Index Ventures, with input from other investors including seed-focused tech VC firm Hoxton Ventures, onefinestay founder Greg Marsh, and Housetrip founder Arnaud Bertrand. It will be used to invest in its logistics technology and delivery platform in advance of the opening of its first international office later this year. William Shu, co-founder and CEO of Deliveroo, said: “I formulated the idea for Deliveroo because I was consistently dissatisfied by London’s takeaway options. “In New York, where I previously lived and worked, I was able to enjoy food from all my favourite restaurants at home. In the UK, the option just wasn’t available – and it became my mission to change that.
