Spanish on-demand delivery startup, Glovo, announced that it has raised $167 million (€150m) in a Series E round led by by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala. Other investors include venture capital fund Lakestar, Idinvest Partners and Drake QSR, which had already invested in Glovo in the past.
The company also announced that the new funds has made the company cross $1 billion valuation mark, making it the second privately-held Spanish company to have achieved the “unicorn” status.
According to Glovo, this new inflow will be used to help Glovo hire 300 new engineers and developers by mid-2020 and to expand into new territories.
The on-demand service, which employs 1,500 staff, is currently operational in 288 cities in across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and relies on a network of some 50,000 drivers who get around by bicycle or motorbike.
Related story: Glovo launches in Mombasa, Kenya
According to Glovo’s co-founder and Oscar Pierre, “We’re very pleased to welcome Mubadala as an investor, as well as to further strengthen our position within the industry. To have achieved unicorn status is something truly exciting and a testament to the talent within the company, and their determination to keep innovating and disrupting the on-demand delivery space. Despite our rapid growth and new status, we still have the same vision we’ve always had: to make everything within the city instantly available to our customers.”
In an interview with Techcrunch, Pierre said the focus for the business in 2020 — now flush with Series E cash — will be achieving profitability. He said it’s hoping to achieve that in a little over a year’s time.
“Our plan is to use this money to go fully profitable as a company during early 2021,” he told TechCrunch. “I think that’s quite realistic. Still with a very high growth. So we’re expecting more than 2x-2.5x growth during next year.”
“Our investment is a testament to our commitment to the European tech market,” Mubadala said, recalling it had launched a 400-million-euro fund to invest in the sector in mid-2018.
In Africa, the firm operates in Kenya, Morocco, Egypt and Ivory Coast. It plans to expand to Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania
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