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Deliveroo’s Finnish rival Wolt secures £388M funding as Europe’s on-demand food sector soars amid COVID-19

Europe, home to some of the food delivery giants, is experiencing a battle for food delivery dominance. Recently, Deliveroo raised £132 million as the UK company eyes a potential listing this year. 

On the other hand, Delivery Hero, a Berlin-based online food delivery company, raised £1.12 billion by issuing new shares to institutional investors. Just Eat Takeaway is making some serious investments to consolidate its position. 

Raised £388 million

In this regard, Wolt, the food, grocery, and retail delivery company founded in Helsinki has secured $530 million (approx £388 million) in funding led by ICONIQ Growth. 

New and existing investors including, Tiger Global, DST, KKR, Prosus, EQT Growth, Coatue, 83North, Highland Europe, Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, EQT Ventures, and Vintage Investment Partners, also participated in the round. This round brings the total funding amount raised to $856 million (approx £626 million). 

How will the funding be used?

The company will use the funding to consolidate its position in the markets and expand its offering beyond the restaurant. 

“We raised this round of financing to further strengthen our balance sheet, allowing us to think long-term and double down on building even stronger positions across our markets while continuing to expand our offering beyond the restaurant.” Miki Kuusi, CEO & co-founder of Wolt says

From cosmetics to pet food 

Founded by Elias Aalto, Juhani Mykkänen, Lauri Andler, Mika Matikainen, Miki Kuusi, and Oskari Petas in 2015, Wolt is a technology company that makes it incredibly easy to discover and get great food delivered. 

At present, the company has expanded to 23 countries and 129 cities and partners with over 30 000 restaurants. It’s worth mentioning that the company has recently expanded into Japan and Germany. 

Besides restaurants and takeaways, the Finnish company has ventured into the grocery and retail sectors last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Kuusi concludes: “We operate in an extremely competitive and well-funded industry, and this round allows us to have a long-term mindset when it comes to doubling down on our different markets. Despite the turbulence of 2020, we’ve remained focused on growth, tripling our revenue to a preliminary $345 million against a net loss of $45 million. Compared to the $662 million in new capital that we’ve raised during the past year, this puts us into a strong position for investing in our people, technology, and markets when thinking about the next few years ahead.”

The post Deliveroo’s Finnish rival Wolt secures £388M funding as Europe’s on-demand food sector soars amid COVID-19 appeared first on UKTN (UK Tech News).

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