MADRID (Reuters) – Delivery app Glovo said on Thursday it had raised an additional 450 million euros ($528 million), calling it the largest financing round secured by a Spanish start-up.
Glovo, based in Barcelona, has seen demand soar during the COVID-19 pandemic, as locked-down customers turned to its quick delivery service that provides everything from food to toiletries. It currently has some 10 million users.
Glovo said it would use the funds to expand further in the 20 markets where it operates. It will also focus on its Q-commerce division as part of a goal of growing ultra-fast deliveries across the 850 cities where the app operates.
So-called quick commerce has boomed in the past year as the pandemic put a new premium on ultra-rapid deliveries of food and goods from relatively local stockrooms.
Investors have rushed to get in on the action of delivery apps, but the much-anticipated IPO of Deliveroo on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday saw shares in the British delivery company plunge by as much as 30%, cutting more than 2 billion pounds off the company’s valuation.
“This investment will allow us to grow in our core markets, accelerate our leadership position in places where we are already very strong, continue to expand our Q-commerce division and bring more innovation to our multi-category offering,” Glovo CEO Oscar Pierre said in a statement.
Glovo raised the latest investment in a new round of Series F financing led by New York-based Lugard Road Capital and Luxor Capital Group. Delivery Hero, Drake Enterprises and GP Bullhound also participated in the round. All are previous investors in Glovo.
The company did not give a valuation for the business but Spanish financial newspaper Expansion cited a figure of 2 billion euros.
($1 = 0.8525 euros)
(Reporting by Jessica Jones and Anita Kobylinska, Editing by Douglas Busvine and Keith Weir)
