The ‘DeliverDate’ campaign will see the Tinder profiles of 30 local singletons printed onto 1,000 special edition Wingstop order boxes – and customers are able to scan associated QR codes to be taken straight to their profiles.

“With help from Tinder and Wingstop, were asking the nation to let us be a wingman and bring love into their living rooms,” said Aisha Jefferson, UK & Ireland Head of Consumer Comms at Deliveroo. “Any single Brits should opt-in for the DeliverDate service because they might just satisfy their hunger for love and with any luck be putting a wing on it by next year. And if not, at least they can satisfy their hunger for wings.”

Customers ordering from Wingstop in Battersea, Kentish Town, Gloucester Road, Croydon, and Birmingham on the 13 and 14 February will have the option to add the ‘DeliverDate’ special edition packaging to their order before confirming in the Deliveroo app.

The customers who select the ‘DeliverDate’ option will receive their food in packaging displaying six profiles of singletons from the local area. Any of the six people who catches the customer’s eye can be scanned to be taken directly to their full profile and swiped right (or left) on.

“The start of 2021 has been unplucking believable, so this Valentines Day, with the help of Deliveroo and Wingstop, were elevating our status to be the ultimate wingman to UK singletons. And the best bit, you dont have to share your food,” said Laura Wilkinson-Rea, Director of Communications UK at Tinder.

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The Series H round, led by Durable Capital Partners LP and Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, comes ahead of the company’s plans to go public later this year.

The London-based startup will look to use the funding to help it expand its ‘Editions’ delivery-only kitchen sites around the world; expand its on-demand grocery service; expand its ‘Plus’ subscription offering; offer restaurants its ‘Signature’ service, which enables customers to order via a restaurant’s own website; and launch new initiatives for riders.

“At Deliveroo we are always focused on developing the best proposition for consumers, riders and restaurants,” said Will Shu, Founder and CEO of Deliveroo. “This investment will help us to continue to innovate, developing new tech tools to support restaurants, to provide riders with more work and to extend choice for customers, bringing them the food they love from more restaurants than ever before. We are really pleased our shareholders see the opportunity and growth potential ahead of us.”

The post Deliveroo valued at $7bn in $180m funding round appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Amazon’s intention to invest in Deliveroo was announced by in May 2019 when Amazon led a $575m (£457m) funding round, which also included funds from existing investors T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Management and Research Company, and Greenoaks.

The involvement of Amazon in this funding round triggered a probe by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the government department deciding to pause the transaction in July 2019.

Now, more than a year later, the CMA has deemed that that Amazon’s investment in Deliveroo wouldn’t be damaging to competition.

“Today’s final decision is the result of a thorough examination of this deal and the markets in which Amazon and Deliveroo operate,” said Stuart McIntosh, Inquiry Chair. “The CMA’s initial Phase 1 review of the transaction highlighted potential competition concerns which the independent Inquiry Group has considered in detail during the Phase 2 investigation. Taking account of the higher legal standard that applies at Phase 2, the Group has concluded that the transaction will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in either restaurant delivery or convenience grocery delivery.”

The decision doesn’t actually come as much of a surprise with the CMA having provisionally cleared the transaction a few months ago.

In April, Deliveroo argued that the coronavirus pandemic had done so much damage to its business that it wouldn’t be able to survive without Amazon’s investment. The CMA agreed and continued to monitor the company’s finances, eventually finding that the recovery of the food delivery market during the outbreak meant that Deliveroo “could no longer be considered a failing firm”.

Despite this, the regulator still came to conclusion that Amazon’s claim of 16 per cent of Deliveroo would not lessen competition. If Amazon were to acquire a larger stake in Deliveroo, however, the CMA has said it could launch another investigation.

The post Amazon given green light to pick up stake in Deliveroo appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The online food delivery market seems to be going through an interesting period at the moment with several deals being made by some of the biggest players in the industry. The notable recent deals include Just Eat and Takeaway.com’s merger, Deliveroo’s acquisition of Cultivate, and DoorDash’s purchase of Caviar.

All three deals are very different in nature but could all prove to have some sort of bearing on each other in the long run.

Just Eat agrees merger with Dutch rival Takeaway.com
Perhaps the biggest recent deal involves Just Eat agreeing terms with Takeaway.com to create one of the world’s biggest online food delivery companies. The merger, which should be completed in the fourth quarter of this year, will see the combined company named Just Eat Takeaway.com and leave Just Eat’s shareholders with around 52.2 per cent of the company’s share capital.

So, why have the two companies agreed to the deal?

“It’s happened because investors believe that to be successful in this business you’ve got to have scale,” says Peter Backman, a foodservice analyst and principal at Peter Backman foodservice consultancy. “I think I agree with them. And how do you get scale as an aggregator as opposed to a deliverer?

“If you are just fundamentally focusing on order capture and feeding it back to the restaurant, then that’s a nice play because it’s a tech play. And that’s what Just Eat and Takeaway are doing. However, Just Eat in its core markets – particularly the UK – is now approaching a point where it can’t do more of that because it depends on smaller players and the amount of business they can generate and handle. Just Eat is being forced to look at a delivery model which is inherently less profitable than being an app player.”

As it stands, Takeaway.com operates in markets that are probably behind the UK when it comes to the online food delivery space, leaving room for growth in these markets that this merger can exploit. At the same time, Just Eat is closer to market maturity with Takeaway.com being about half its size.

“Just Eat is having to move away from a very profitable discovery model to a much less profitable discovery plus delivery model,” according to Backman. “How that plays out in the future? I don’t know, but I rather suspect that it will be looking for other companies of a similar shape in other markets because, at the moment, Just Eat and Takeaway are active in 25 markets and there are 200 around the world. They will be looking to get into the remaining 175 markets, so I think we’ll see more acquisitions and mergers over the coming months and years.”

Where there’s further mergers and acquisitions come from remains a mystery but Backman believes the newly-formed company may look toward picking up some US business, though they first have to “get together and sort themselves out because there’s not a lot of synergies between the businesses other than technology synergies”.

Deliveroo acquires Cultivate
Last week, Deliveroo announced that it had bought Edinburgh-based software design and development firm Cultivate. The plan is to use the acquisition to improve the payments experiences, provide more information about earnings to riders and restaurants, and offering new financial support services to riders and restaurants. Deliveroo will also make use of its new subsidiary to setup a tech hub in Edinburgh – its first UK tech office outside London.

“At one level, you can see it as a deep strategic move. On another level, you can see it as it having to keep doing these things and findings new things to do because it’s a highly competitive market,” says Backman.

“There’s no doubt that Deliveroo sees itself – and is pushing itself – as a tech company. It happens to do delivery but it’s all about the order capture, the information that flows between the operator and the customer, the operator and the rider, and all of those people and data flowing into delivery. That’s what it sees as the core of its business.”

Backman sees the acquisition as Deliveroo beginning to make moves into the parts of the food delivery chain that it doesn’t currently have a say in, because it doesn’t yet take part in things like table booking, customer satisfaction, or payments. So, this acquisition can be seen as being “part of its play to get more heavily involved in the whole customer operator interface”.

“It’s about trying to make themselves different and therefore distance themselves from any other player in the marketplace,” adds Backman. “But, bear in mind, anybody can be doing this because there are any number of these technology companies that are doing clever things that you can mop up.”

One player that may have had its attention taken by Deliveroo’s acquisition of Cultivate is Uber Eats, being a direct competitor in Europe. However, due to the fact Uber has its taxi platform and more technology, more sales, and a larger delivery base, it may not be so concerned about the moves Deliveroo is making.

Uber’s bigger concern, according to Backman, would probably be the interest that Amazon has in acquiring Deliveroo.

DoorDash buys Caviar for $410m
The final big bit of recent movement in the online food delivery came in the shape of DoorDash acquiring Caviar for $410m. Caviar was owned by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Square payments company.

This acquisition has been seen as strengthening the existing partnership between DoorDash and Square, with DoorDash already using the Square for Restaurants point of sale.

Despite this acquisition taking place in the US, Backman sees it helping to set the tone for the entire online food delivery market as he expects to see either “more and more acquisitions and mergers of larger scale in North America” or a US company saying “’well, we’ve got a strong position in this geographical part of North America, so we’ll expand into Europe through a merger with Just Eat and Takeaway’ for example”.

“I see all these things as being interconnected and it’s not necessarily dominating North America which is going to be the game changer,” says Backman.

What does it all mean?
Some may see the current online food delivery as being a pivotal moment for the industry. Backman, however, sees it as one pivotal moment of a few that we will see.

“I’ve been saying for some time that there will be consolidation and I think there’s a load of consolidation to still occur. I think we’re on the beginning of one consolidation phase,” he says.

“What happens is companies start to merge defensively because everybody else is, or because a perceived important competitor is, and they feel they’ve got to do it as well. I think we’re going to see some of that happening, which means that some of the mergers won’t play out in the long term and businesses will be streamlined and bits will be shuffled off.”

At the moment, the challenge facing the industry is figuring out the best way to make money out it. Currently, “the customers want it, it’s difficult to make money, but the business generates data,” according to Backman. And, for the time being, investors are happy are happy to pump money into these businesses because of that customer information.

Looking ahead, the opportunity to make money for food delivery firms may be by pouncing on the struggles currently being experienced by supermarkets.

Just recently, Tesco announced that it would be cutting 4,500 jobs. And taking advantage of this is where Backman sees the real growth happening for food delivery businesses.

“I think that, once the market reaches a certain level of maturity, the only way you can get growth is by taking away business from the supermarkets,” he says. “And I’m not talking about supermarket delivery. I’m saying if you order a meal then that meal has to replace something that you would’ve got from your fridge, not from a restaurant. I think the average price of a delivered meal will increase at the moment whilst the market is finding its feet and then it will start to fall a bit.

“The supermarket business in this country is undergoing a lot of pain, partly because the bigger players are suffering from Aldi and Lidl stealing their share, but also because the way that customers shop is changing. The whole supermarket model is changing, which it’s becoming less structured and less rigid, leaving an opportunity for delivery to grab some of that market.”

An example of one food delivery firm getting involved in the supermarket space is the recently launched pizza delivery trial between Deliveroo and Sainsbury’s. Whether or not Deliveroo and others choose to dive deeper into this space in the future, only time will tell. For now, we know “there’s lots happening, online food delivery is growing rapidly and, therefore, it’s attracted a lot of money,” concludes Backman.

The post Are we experiencing a “pivotal” period in the online food delivery space? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Deliveroo has acquired Cultivate, an Edinburgh-based software design and development firm. The online food delivery company will use the acquisition to setup a tech hub in Edinburgh, which will be its first UK tech office outside of London.

Cultivate has worked with Deliveroo in the past, helping to build the payments system it uses every day. Deliveroo will seek to use the acquisition to improve the payments experience for riders and restaurants further, as well as looking to give riders and restaurants more information on how they are earning through the platform and offering riders and restaurants new financial support services.

“As a British company, Deliveroo is proud to be investing in Edinburgh and creating more high skilled jobs in the UK,” said Dan Winn, VP of engineering at Deliveroo. “Edinburgh is one of the UKs fastest growing tech hubs, with access to an excellent talent pool of highly skilled people and university graduates. Deliveroo is committed to offering riders flexible, well-paid work and helping restaurants to grow their businesses. Building on Cultivates expertise, we are excited to create new products and services that will help us achieve this.”

Deliveroo has promised to continue backing the community initiatives that Cultivate already supports such as Prewired, which helps young people learn to code, and Codebar, which supports underrepresented groups develop software engineering skills.

“We have a fantastic relationship with Deliveroo, supporting them through an amazing period of growth,” said Andy Robinson, chief commercial officer at Cultivate. “We were attracted by the array of interesting problems being tackled by their team, and how they are addressing them using modern and emerging technology. Were proud to have built such a great team here in Edinburgh, and todays announcement is a testament to their hard work and expertise in building world-class software. We are excited to continue this work, create highly skilled jobs, and build a centre of tech excellence here in Edinburgh.”

The post Deliveroo buys Edinburgh startup Cultivate to launch Scottish tech hub appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Customers in Cambridge, Selly Oak, West Hove, Pimlico, and Hornsey will be able to get freshly baked sourdough pizzas straight from the supermarket counter to their doors as part of the two-month trial. In these locations, the counters will stay open later to fulfil demand later into the night.

“With more and more shoppers looking for convenient and affordable meals delivered to their doors, our trial with Deliveroo brings our great value hot food direct to customers’ homes,” said Clodagh Moriarty, chief digital officer at Sainsbury’s Group. “We’re committed to making it as quick and easy as possible for our customers to shop with us and we’ll be listening to their feedback throughout the trial to understand how we can best serve their hot food delivery needs. We’re excited to see what our customers think before deciding if, how and where we go next with the offer.”

Customers will also be able to choose from almost 50 Sainsbury’s products to complement their takeaway, including sides, salads, dips, and soft drinks. The supermarket chain says it will add more products during the pilot.

“We’re excited to launch Sainsbury’s on Deliveroo and bring even more choice to our customers around the UK,” said Justin Landsberger, commercial director at Deliveroo. “At Deliveroo, we pride ourselves on providing customers with an excellent selection of food options, catering for every occasion and this new partnership will allow us to do that.”

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The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has decided to halt the transaction while it considers launching a full investigation into Amazon’s investment. The initial enforcement order served to Amazon and Deliveroo does not include a deadline.

The order, which was issued on 24 June 2019, states that the CMA has “reasonable grounds for suspecting” that Amazon and Roofoods, which trades as Deliveroo, have “ceased to be distinct” or that greenlighting the transaction would lead to a merger between the two.

During the pause to the deal, Deliveroo and Amazon must continue to operate entirely separately from one another, and they may not make any changes to organisational structure or staffing, while also not transferring any assets or intellectual property.

Deliveroo is arguing that the investment from Amazon will help to create jobs, help restaurants to grow, and improve choice for consumers.

“Deliveroo and Amazon have been working closely with regulators to obtain regulatory approvals,” said a Deliveroo spokesperson. “There are a number of major companies within the restaurant food delivery sector and this investment will enable Deliveroo to expand, innovate and, we believe, will enhance competition.”

An Amazon spokesperson added: “We believe this minority investment will enable Deliveroo to expand its services, benefiting consumers through increased choice and creating new jobs as more restaurants gain access to the service.”

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The eCommerce giant is leading a $575m round of funding into the UK-based food delivery business. However, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson, has announced that he will be calling on the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to launch an investigation into the investment, meaning the startup may never see Amazon’s cash due to what Watson has called “surveillance capitalism”.

In a series of tweets, the MP said: “Deliveroos CEO Will Shu welcomes a land grab by Amazon because ‘it is such a customer-obsessed organisation’,” referring to comments made by Shu about the investment. “Hes right, Amazon is obsessed. Obsessed with tracking tools, micro-targeted ads, extracting billions through monetising our personal data.

“They dont want to get their mighty claws on a food delivery system. They want Deliveroos tech and data. They dont just want to know how you eat, what you eat, when you eat. They want to know how best to extract your cash throughout your waking and sleeping hours.”

Despite Watson’s tweets, it’s still unclear under what grounds he will demand a CMA investigation into the investment. But we can assume, based on his comments, that it will relate to a potential misuse of data.

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The series G preferred shared funding round also include investment from existing investors T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Management and Research Company, and Greenoaks.

“Were impressed with Deliveroos approach, and their dedication to providing customers with an ever-increasing selection of great restaurants along with convenient delivery options,” said Doug Gurr, Amazon UK Country manager. “Will [Shu] and his team have built an innovative technology and service, and were excited to see what they do next.”

Deliveroo says it will use the cash boost to grow its London-based engineering; expand its delivery reach; innovating within the food sector; and to develop new products in order to offer a more personalised experience to customers, increased support to its restaurant partners, and tools to offer riders ‘flexible and well-paid work’.

“This new investment will help Deliveroo to grow and to offer customers even more choice, tailored to their personal tastes, offer restaurants greater opportunities to grow and expand their businesses, and to create more flexible, well-paid work for riders,” said Will Shu, founder and CEO of Deliveroo.

“Amazon has been an inspiration to me personally and to the company, and we look forward to working with such a customer-obsessed organisation.

“This is great news for the tech and restaurant sectors, and it will help to create jobs in all of the countries in which we operate.”

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The London-based company was last valued at over $2bn but any offer would be considerably above that valuation, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the plans. There is still a large chance that the talks could fall through because of Deliveroo and its investors are reluctant to give up independence.

Deliveroo has so far avoided the US market, which already has a wealth of options in the food delivery space, but operates – and is hugely successful – in more than 200 cities across Europe, Asia, and Australia, where it competes directly with Uber’s Uber Eats food delivery service.

The Uber Eats service is available in locations right across the world – operating in Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Australia & New Zealand, and Africa.

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