Restaurant delivery platform Deliveroo to launch operations in India

Deliveroo, the Young Gun-founded on-demand restaurant meal delivery business, is set to launch operations in India according to the Times of India.

The London-headquartered company is looking to hire a country head to spearhead operations and build a team.

With a population of over 1.3 billion people (the second largest after China), India represents one of the world’s biggest markets and is home to some of its most densely populated cities.

Founded in 2013 by William Shu and Greg Orlowski, Startups 100-featured Deliveroo has a presence in 13 countries around the world, delivering meals to customers in hundreds of cities from tens of thousands of partner restaurants.

As well as UberEats – which already has a presence in India – Deliveroo will face stiff competition from a number of well-established rivals upon launch in the market, including Swiggy and Zomato.

Meanwhile, Indian taxi aggregator Ola recently entered the country’s increasingly crowded food delivery space with its acquisition of Foodpanda India from German company Delivery Hero, investing $200m as part of the deal.

Deliveroo’s rapid growth has been fuelled by a string of increasingly large funding rounds, including a £285m Series F in September 2017 that saw it achieve a $2bn valuation, and a £275m Series E in August 2016.

This latest finance has enabled it to launch in more towns and cities across the globe and to invest in the expansion of its technology teams. These teams will help it take on rivals in new markets by improving the algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) systems that speed up delivery times and establish the most popular local dishes.

2017 was a big year for Deliveroo, opening its 100^th UK location in Newport and being named the UK’s fastest growing technology start-up in March at the UK finals of The Next Web’s European Tech5 competition. With current developments, 2018 could be even bigger.