Online fast-food purchasing is well established as a growth area for business, with Berlin-based Delivery Hero raising almost €100m to rocket its value up to €2.7bn, with €525m raised in 2015 alone.
A competitor to the likes of JustEat, Delivery Hero’s pre-IPO workings have really caught the eye of industry investors.
Last month it announced plans to purchase Turkish food delivery giant Yemeksepeti for around €525m, as well as Greek-based e-Food.gr, with this latest round of funding to be used for “selective acquisitions and intensive product innovation”.
To date, Delivery Hero has built up a network of more than 200,000 restaurants in 34 countries. The company is processing 10 million orders every month, with Delivery Hero’s restaurant partners generating more than €150 million in monthly sales.
According to the Financial Times the global market for home delivery and takeaway food could reach US$104.7bn by 2018, “up 16pc from today”, showing just why so much money is being banked on businesses expanding in this sphere, and why a unicorn of this nature is so exciting.
The purchase of Yemeksepeti opens up the Middle Eastern market to Delivery Hero, which is an area primed for growth. The company has raised US$1bn in total since its creation, with plans for an IPO in 2015 still unclear.
“Our view is that we will be prepared later this year but will wait until we see a clear benefit from it,” Delivery Hero CEO Niklas Östberg told TechCrunch. “Right now we enjoy the benefits of being private. We have the same financial backing as our public peers while being able to act very long term. This makes us the worst possible competitor you can have. Therefore no plans to IPO in 2015.”
Eating food ordered over smartphone, via Shutterstock
