Spanish on-demand delivery service Glovo has announced raising a further €150 million, led by Abu Dhabi based Mubadala. This new funding places Glovo as the 2nd Spanish startup to attain the much-coveted ‘unicorn’ status. Glovo has already raised Series C and Series D funding of over €265 million in the last year and a half.
Oscar Pierre, Co-founder and CEO of Glovo, said: “To have achieved unicorn status is something truly exciting and a testament to the talent within the company, and their determination to keep innovating and disrupting the on-demand delivery space. Despite our rapid growth and new status, we still have the same vision we’ve always had: to make everything within the city instantly available to our customers.”
The Barcelona-based startup, which promises to deliver everything from food to groceries to pharmaceutical items, has been strengthening its global position, right across Europe, Latin America and Africa. In fact, it recently entered the Polish market and acquired Pizza Portal in a €35 million deal, as well as invested in a second technology hub in Warsaw. It certainly seems to have been working – Glovo states that it is sitting among the top two delivery players in 24 of the 26 countries in which it operates.
The interesting thing about Glovo is that it aims to deliver just about anything, within a 20 minute time frame. It sees no real limits to its customer base, whereas Deliveroo and Just Eat are primarily fast food orientated. Glovo’s approach involves letting their own in-house entrepreneurs set up local city-wide networks from scratch, so they have an emotional stake in the brand.
Glovo has stated that it has no plans to enter the UK just yet, but there is definitely room for disruption within the delivery of prescription medications from the thousands of NHS pharmacies across the UK. Time, accuracy of address, and security of the package are all crucial of course – plus insurance. There’s a partnership opportunity perhaps for an insurtech company here?
The new funds raised will be used to continue Glovo’s global expansion, hiring 300 additional engineers by mid-2020, as well as adding 90 engineers, tech and product experts to its new Warsaw office. By building its tech team, Glovo says it hopes to perfect its user experience, and therefore reduce waiting time for couriers and customers.
In addition, Glovo aims to seek out strategic partnerships, similar to its deal with Carrefour, which have facilitated its ‘deliver anything’ service (including alcohol, pharmaceutical products and other everyday items). Then, to spur on the growth of its groceries category, Glovo will continue to seek and invest in its own ‘dark supermarkets’ (a store closed to the public, where only employees pick up products). The company currently operates seven dark stores in Europe and Latin America, and plans to open an ambitious 100 more by 2021.
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