Deliveroo shares rose up to 9% this week after the British food delivery company announced that its Berlin-based rival Delivery Hero had taken up a 5.1% stake in the business. The news caused Deliveroo’s share price to rise to 345.6p per share, the highest since its IPO in March.
The move comes amid a continuing trend of consolidation among food delivery startups that have seen demand for food delivery boom during pandemic lockdown measures across Europe, as well as a venture capital-funded surge to grab a slice of the emerging market to deliver groceries and prepared food.
Founded in 2013 by Will Shu and Greg Orlowski, Deliveroo got a boost in 2019 when the e-commerce giant Amazon led a $575 million funding round for the company.
London-headquartered Deliveroo and Berlin-based Delivery Hero are two of the largest food delivery companies in Europe.
Delivery Hero is significantly larger than Deliveroo with a market cap of around 30 billion euros ($35 billion), and it also holds minority stakes in food delivery companies including Glovo, Just Eat Takeaway, Rappi, and Zomato.
