London startup Deliveroo has raised $100 million for its restaurant delivery service
The Series D investment round was led by DST Global and Greenoaks Capital with participation from existing investors Accel, Hummingbird Ventures and Index Ventures.
Unlike the majority of food delivery businesses that are purely online marketplaces for takeaway restaurants, Deliveroo, founded by former investment banker Will Shu and CTO Greg Orlowski in 2013, aims to partner with premium restaurants that don't typically provide delivery. The startup has partnered with over 5,000 restaurants worldwide, including the likes of Dishoom, Ping Pong and Dirty Burger, and Michelin-starred Trishna in London.
Deliveroo is currently available in 30 UK cities and 20 other international cities, with most of those in Europe. Today the startup makes its first foray into Australasia, launching in Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Melbourne, and Sydney.
Shu, who still carries out Deliveroo's sub-30 minute deliveries, told Business Insider that Deliveroo has received similar traction in every market it has entered. "I think we're creating a new market for restaurants, drivers, and customers," he told Business Insider over the phone ahead of the funding announcement. "Fundamentally this is something people really, really want in the developed world."
The latest investment means that Deliveroo is likely to have a valuation in excess of $1 billion (£660 million), making it the UK's next unicorn company and putting it alongside the likes of Shazam, FanDuel, and Transferwise. Deliveroo was unable to confirm its valuation with Business Insider.
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When asked if Deliveroo was profitable, Shu said: "I can't really disclose anything about our financials."
Deliveroo now employs 300 people, with approximately half of those in the UK. Other employees can be found in Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, and Berlin, as well as the five new non-European cities the startup has launched in today.
The idea for Deliveroo came about after Shu transferred from Morgan Stanley's office in New York to the investment bank's Canary Wharf office. Upon arriving in London, Shu said he quickly realised that there wasn't much on offer in the way of restaurant deliveries compared to New York. A few years after arriving in London, online delivery services started to become popular but Shu said the quality of the food being delivered was often relatively poor, adding that it would take too long to arrive.