Deliveroo raises £2.75m to expand delivery of quality restaurant food across the UK
Fuelled by strong demand from both restaurant owners and consumers in Central London, Deliveroo expands deliveries across the city and signs up new restaurants including Carluccio’s and Tommi’s Burgers.
London – Deliveroo, the London-based food delivery platform, today announces a £2.75m Series A funding round, led by Index Ventures with participation from Hoxton Ventures.
Founded by William Shu and Greg Orlowski, Deliveroo delivers quality restaurant meals to consumers quickly and efficiently. Deliveroo works with a combination of leading independent and chain restaurants to offer consumers an unparalled end-to-end experience that redefines the home food delivery business.
Deliveroo helps restaurants generate additional revenue from existing menus without needing to handle the complexities of logistics – or be distracted from serving in-house diners. Restaurants on theDeliveroo platform include Brindisa, Busaba Eathai, Carluccio’s, Cay Tre, Goodlife Diner, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Princi, Rossopomodoro and Tommi’s Burgers.
Deliveroo restaurant partners have found working with Deliveroo can increase revenues by 10 to 20%. Chris Todd, COO, Good Life Diner Group, said: “"We are pleased to be working withDeliveroo. We share a common passion for customer service excellence. We have been able to significantly increase revenue across our sites with no increase in fixed costs or labour. We look forward to growing our delivery business together."
With the new funding, Deliveroo plans to further strengthen its logistics technologies and delivery platform. Deliveroo customers receive their food, on average, in less than half an hour from submitting their order.
Javed Akhtar, Operations Director, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, said: “One reason we chose to work with Deliveroo is their extensive analytics and technology. Every Deliveroo order is GPS-tracked and time-stamped at every stage, meaning we are able to determine where things are going well and not. It is extremely important for GBK to work with someone who can sustain our high quality standards out of the restaurant, and Deliveroo has delivered, no pun intended!"
Deliveroo was born out of a need to find higher-quality delivery food. William Shu, CEO, 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.”
Since being founded in February 2013, Deliveroo has grown rapidly, adding users, restaurants and drivers at a rapid speed. Many Deliveroo users go on to become repeat customers, ordering every 21 days. One customer has already spent north of £15,000 with Deliveroo.
Deliveroo is based in London, but with the funding, it plans to open its first international office later this year,
Today’s investment round is the first venture funding for the company. Other investors in the round include Hoxton Ventures, JamJar Investments, Greg Marsh, the founder of onefinestay, and Arnaud Bertrand, the founder of HouseTrip.
“We’re really excited to have Index and Hoxton on board as investors. Our focus to date has been on establishing our core proposition, and this Series A round will help us fulfil our expansion plans, as well as marketing and technology development,” said Shu.
Index’s Martin Mignot, who joined the Deliveroo board, added: "William and Greg are absolute machines: what they built with virtually no money and a skeleton team is extremely impressive. As always, timing is everything when launching a new company: they have been able to leverage smartphone penetration (all of their drivers, the "Roomen", possess their own iPhones) to provide an obvious service and a great experience to consumers, in a way that simply was not cost-effective before. Their obsessive focus on the delivery experience, and the unique software they have developed to make it happen at scale, put them in a very strong position to rapidly scale their service across Europe and beyond.”
About Deliveroo
Deliveroo delivers high-quality restaurant meals to consumers’ homes and offices. Deliveroo’s aim is to deliver excellent meals, quickly and transparently.
Martin Mignot from Index explains why Index has decided to lead the round and is so excited about what is coming next for the company: Building a local food delivery network.
Published — June 26, 2014