Brief: Food ordering app Glovo raises $528m from Delivery Hero, others

• Spanish food delivery app Glovo has raised €450 million ($528 million) in a Series F funding round co-led by New York-based Luxor Capital Group and its affiliate Lugard Road Capital.
• Several of Glovo’s existing backers participated in the round, including Germany’s Delivery Hero, Switzerland’s Drake Enterprises, and the UK’s GP Bullhound.
• Barcelona-based Glovo will use the funding to accelerate its ‘q-commerce’ strategy – with the aim of providing 30-minute on-demand to all its urban users – and to hire up to 200 engineers in Madrid, Warsaw, and its hometown.

Why it matters:

Glovo says it serves close to 10 million users across 20 European countries, delivering restaurant orders, groceries, and other items on demand.

Its Series F is reportedly the largest round ever raised by a Spanish startup, and values the company at an estimated $1.7 billion.

The mega-round comes after a year of substantial investment into the food delivery space, as platforms offering ‘contactless’ online restaurant ordering and grocery shopping saw an explosion in demand amid the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns.

In the last few days alone, Italian grocery portal Everli raised $100 million, with Turkish on-demand delivery app Getir securing $300 million in a Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global-led Series C round; while German e-grocer Gorillas scored $290 million and UK ‘dark kitchen’ and delivery service Zapp reportedly raised $100 million.

However, not all investors are as impressed by the on-demand delivery space; UK food delivery app Deliveroo saw over $3 billion knocked off its valuation following its IPO in London yesterday.