Deliveroo has confirmed a whopping $575 million Series G, which the London-based company has earmarked for its global expansion, as well as boosting its engineering team. The round, first reported Thursday, was led by Amazon and supported by existing backers including Fidelity, Greenoaks Capital and T. Rowe Price. The new funding pushes Deliveroo's total capital raised north of $1.5 billion.
The news likely puts to bed any possibility of a tie-up with Uber, which was in talks to buy Deliveroo last year before the two reportedly proved unable to agree on a valuation for the delivery service. Amazon is now one of Deliveroo's biggest investors, and the stake gives both companies more resources in the ongoing battle against Uber Eats. The ecommerce giant shut down its Amazon Restaurants food delivery service in the UK last year after struggling to compete with Deliveroo and Uber.
Founded in 2013 by Will Shu (pictured), Deliveroo operates in 14 countries and more than 500 cities but is still losing money. Its rapid expansion saw losses swell to £185 million in 2017, up from £129 million the previous year.
Shu and his team of engineers have introduced several innovations, including the development of a takeout app that uses its own couriers and the launch of brick-and-mortar pop-up kitchens—shipping containers retrofitted as kitchens—in which several restaurants cook at the same time. Many of these practices have since been copied by industry rivals.
Deliveroo was last valued at $2 billion, following a $385 million round in 2017. No new valuation was reported following the Series G, but some reports suggest it could be as high as $4 billion.
Featured image courtesy of Deliveroo
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