The multi-category delivery leader closes the largest investment round in Spain to date, led by Lakestar with participation from Drake, Korelya Capital and Idinvest.
Seaya Ventures remains the second biggest shareholder in Glovo after supporting the company in all previous financing rounds since 2016.
This new round of funding demonstrates increasing interest by renowned international investors in leading Spanish and Latin American technology companies.
May 7, 2019 – Glovo, one of the world’s fastest growing delivery players announced last week a $170M Series D funding round, led by international venture capital firm Lakestar.
The Barcelona-based startup, which delivers everything from food to groceries and pharmaceutical items, will invest this new funding in global growth. In a bid to become the everything app for city living, Glovo plans to focus on expanding its team of engineers to develop innovations for the on-demand delivery market, including in the areas of groceries and dark supermarkets.
Taking on the on-demand delivery sector worldwide
Since the company’s creation in January 2015 by CEO Oscar Pierre and Co-founder Sacha Michaud, Glovo’s growth has been powered by venture capital. Launching in a new city every four days on average last year, Glovo now employs over 1,000 people and isquickly becoming the fastest growing delivery player in Latin America and EMEA.
The latest funding round was led by Lakestar, technology entrepreneur VC,and Drake, owner of global pizza franchise Papa John’s, with support from new investors: Idinvest Partners, European private equity and venture capital firm, and Korelya Capital, a Technology VC firm supporting the growth of European startups.
Redistributing tech talent
As Glovo expands across the world, it is committed to taking its technological capacity and systems to the next level. In addition to the appointment of VP of Engineering, Mustafa Sezgin late last year, Glovo aims to hire 300 new tech engineers reporting to the ex Uber and SoundCloud Engineering Leader.
The startup will use this growing team of tech experts to create a smarter and more efficient experience for customers, reduce waiting time for Glovers, and help the company enter and become the leader in new markets across Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
Exceeding customer demands with online groceries
In order to meet growing demand and become the everything app for cities, Glovo will also invest heavily in new delivery categories including laundry, alcohol, pharmacy products and groceries. To further accelerate the growth of these categories, the startup is investing in its vertical supply infrastructure, building dark supermarkets that make it possible for groceries to be delivered to customers within 20 minutes of placing the order. These stores stock up to 1,000 items for Glovers to collect for customers in Barcelona and Madrid. The new funding fuels the expansion of these supermarkets across priority markets and will help Glovo deliver a superior experience to customers worldwide.
Glovo will also be focusing on its new–Cook Rooms–customer-free spaces designed to help partners cater to food orders efficiently. Glovo has opened up Cook Rooms in cities in Spain and wishes to expand these kitchens concept globally.
Oscar Pierre, Co-founder and CEO of Glovo commented on the recent funding:“Glovo continues to scale rapidly and we have big ambitions for this round of investment. Our main priority is to invest in our people –our team have been fundamental to our success to date and, as we grow, we need an even bigger team of engineers to meet the demand we’re experiencing.”
“Our aim is to lead in every market we enter and provide an on-demand experience that delivers for our customers, Glovers, and partners. We believe innovations such as dark supermarkets, as well as our commitment to develop technology to provide everything through one app for city dwellers, gives us a significant competitive advantage in the market for the year ahead.”
Dharmash Mistry, Partner at Lakestar, who will be joining the Glovo board, added: “We are excited to invest to support Oscar and the Glovo team. In only three years they have built a significant, international, next-generation, branded, last-mile, express delivery company. The bold ambition to deliver ‘anything anywhere’ in less than 30 minutes will continue to change consumer behavior with respect to the delivery of food and groceries as well as many other products.”
Beatriz González, Founding Partner at Seaya commented:“We are excited about this round of financing and the new investors joining. Glovo continues to demonstrate enormous growth potential and leadership in the on-demand delivery space globally. For us at Seaya, being early backers of the company, this is definitely an important milestone that reinforces our commitment to Glovo and its vision to become the everything app for cities”
Last year Glovo raised $134M in Series C from Seaya Ventures, Cathay Innovation, and Rakuten Capital, with funding to date at $322M.
About Glovo
Glovo is an app that allows you to buy, collect, and send any product within the same city in under an hour. It has more than 5.5 million unique users and 16,000 associated partners. The company operates in 124 cities across 21 countries in EEMEA, LATAM, and most recently, sub-Saharan Africa. It currently employs over 1,000 people worldwide, with over 400 at the Barcelona HQ. More than 35,000 active Glovers make money from the platform.
About Lakestar
Lakestar is one of Europe’s leading venture capital firms investing in technology companies led by exceptional entrepreneurs. Early investments included Skype, Spotify, Facebook, and Airbnb. Since raising its first fund in 2013, Lakestar manages an aggregated volume of €1bn across three early stage funds, and more recently a growth fund. Lakestar has expanded and broadened their portfolio, with more recent investments in Harry’s, Opendoor, GoEuro, FiveAI, and Revolut. Lakestar has offices in Berlin, Zurich and London.
About Seaya Ventures
Based in Madrid, Seaya Ventures has been backing the best entrepreneurs and teams from Spain and Latin America since 2013. Through its focus on a longer-term investment horizon and a more hands-on approach to helping companies grow on both continents, Seaya has become the investor of reference for technology startups in early and growth stages as well as for later stage investors in the US and Asia.
