Deliveroo

Deliveroo is the British food delivery platform founded in London in 2013 by Will Shu and Greg Orlowski, which redefined the delivery market by bringing quality restaurants — including many that had never offered delivery before — directly into the homes of consumers across Europe and Asia. The business model is built on a three-sided marketplace: consumers, restaurants, and riders. Deliveroo owns neither the kitchens nor the delivery fleet; instead, it aggregates supply and demand and takes a commission on each order, typically between 25 and 35 percent from restaurants. Its early differentiation was a deliberate focus on mid-to-premium-quality restaurants, positioning Deliveroo as the upmarket alternative to Just Eat and Uber Eats and attracting a customer base willing to pay a bit more for a better meal. The Deliveroo story is also a memorable case study in the challenges of IPO for European tech companies. When the company listed on the London Stock Exchange in April 2021 at a valuation of £7.6 billion, shares fell 30 percent on the first day of trading — one of the worst debuts in the City's history — as investors focused on concerns around business model sustainability, the employment status of riders, and the long road to profitability. Amazon, which had invested $575 million in 2019, remained the company's largest shareholder through the turbulence. The longer arc, however, told a different story. In 2024, Deliveroo achieved EBITDA-adjusted profitability for the first time, demonstrating that the model could reach sustainability at sufficient scale. It was a vindication of the thesis that unit economics in food delivery, however brutal in the early years, can eventually improve with density, operational discipline, and a loyal customer base — provided the company survives long enough to get there.