Delivery Giant Glovo Raises a E 115 Million Investment Just As It Expands to the MENA

Glovo, the Barcelona-based delivery startup that just landed in Cairo, has now announced the closing of a € 115 million Series C round from international companies Rakuten, Seaya and Cathay; alongside AmRest, the largest publicly listed restaurant operator in Central Europe, the European funds Idinvest Partners and GR Capital, and other investors.

"We are very happy with this new injection of liquidity that will allow us to continue growing at an accelerated rate,” said Oscar Pierre, CEO and co-founder of Glovo. "My main priority is to invest in increasing our tech team to continue optimising the platform and offer the best service in the sector to our three main axes: riders, users and stores and become their reference delivery app."

"We've growing a new city every four days, and this fund will help us expand more and grow in the cities we're already present in," Rodrigo Alier, Expansion Manager in Egypt,  tells Startup Scene ME, anticipating the launch of new cities in the Middle East and Africa in the coming months. 

Founded in Spain in 2015, the tech startup recently announced having opened in six countries and 20 cities around the world in three months, focusing on Latin America and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). In Spain Glovo already operates in more than 21 cities, while worldwide, its presence expands to 61 cities in 17 countries. 

"We launched in Cairo two months ago," Alier explains. "It's one of the biggest market in the region with loads of potential, so it made perfect sense. At the same time, we also launched in Casablanca, Istanbul, and Bucharest, which highlights how we are planning to move forward: cities in the Middle East and Eastern Europe," says the executive, who leads a team of eight in the Egyptian capital. 

This new injection of funding will allow the startup to continue investing in optimising the platform and its technological resources to improve the service to riders, users and associated stores. The company will increase its tech team with the hiring of more than 100 engineers in the coming months, aiming to become the most relevant technology hub in Southern Europe.

The round includes prestigious Japanese firm Rakuten, sponsor of FC Barcelona, alongside other firms that had already invested in their Series B; as global venture capital fund Cathay Innovation and the Spanish fund Seaya Ventures. Joining this roumd, AmRest, is one of the new investors that enter the shareholding of the Barcelona startup. AmRest controls over 1,650 restaurants in more than 16 countries with brands such as KFC, La Tagliatella, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Burger King, Blue Frog and KABB. The investment of 115 million Euros positions Glovo as one of the Spanish companies receiving the largest investment in 2018.

The company has also gained a great exceptional active with the nomination of Niall Wass as Chairman. Wass, former SVP, EMEA & APAC at Uber, has been working for Glovo as advisor for the last year, helping the company with its expansion strategy.

The investment comes at a time when delivery companies are aggressively leveraging on mobile-enabled technologies in the MENA region. "But we don't focus only on food," explains Karim Ebeid, Local Market Launcher and Head of Growth for Egypt. "The difference between us and our competitors is that we are a multicategory platform that not only you can order food from, but also groceries, flowers, coffee or whatever you need. Even if it is not on our app, just choose anything and we will get it done. Our ambition is to make Egypt more accessible to everyone, to make life easier for Egyptians, because we definitely deserve it. "

Main photo courtesy of Glovo.