Delivery App Glovo Raises $169M In Series D Round

On-demand delivery app Glovo, which is similar to Postmates in that it promises to deliver anything, has raised $169 million in a Series D funding round, according to a report.

The round was led by Lakestar and Drake, the company that owns Papa John’s. Other participants include Idinvest Partners and Korelya Capital. The total amount raised by the startup now stands at $322 million. The company’s Series C round raised $134 million 10 months ago.

Glovo, which launched in 2015, boasts that it can get consumers anything locally “within minutes,” which includes McDonald’s, groceries and pharmaceuticals. The company says it has 5.5 million unique users and 16,000 associated partners. The service is available in 124 cities within 21 countries, including Sub Saharan Africa.

Glovo employs upwards of 1,000 people all over the world, with more than 400 in its Barcelona headquarters alone. The company’s gig workers are called “Glovers,” and the company said that about 35,000 of them are active.

The company stated it will use the seed money to help its growth around the world, which has been happening fast. CEO Oscar Pierre said Glovo started in 18 new countries in 2018, with plans to start “dark supermarkets” to facilitate quicker orders.

“Our dark stores are urban micro-fulfillment centers located in central areas of a city. They allow us to fully control the value chain and offer the best UX, with a delivery of around 20 minutes,” Pierre said. “They are run 24 hours a day by Glovo employees whose role is to pick and pack customer orders and have them ready for when the courier arrives. We have launched the offering in Barcelona and Madrid so far, and we are still learning and analyzing the results.”

Pierre also plans to grow the company’s technology and data team to more than 300 engineers in the next year and a half.

“Today, more than 70 percent of our business is food, followed by groceries, courier and pharmacy,” he said. “Our vision is to make everything in a city instantly available through the app, and we want to expand into other areas beyond delivery (services, reservations, etc.) soon.”