Deliveroo finally claims unicorn status

Food delivery startup Deliveroo has this week hit a valuation of over £1bn. This is the high-growth company’s first raise to confirm its fabled ‘unicorn’ status (a unicorn is a tech company valued at over $1bn). 

Beauhurst has been able to verify a £1.09bn valuation, though this is likely to rise as future filings are made available. Deliveroo’s last raise, in August of this year, put it at £721m – just shy of that $1bn figure.

Despite controversy surrounding its delivery workers, and indeed the gig economy as a whole, Deliveroo has spent the last four years raising a total of £626m in equity investment. Its timeline of transactions, complete with the acquisition of Maple (a US food delivery startup) earlier this year, is shown below:

Its investors are predominantly venture capital firms: Accel Partners , Bridgepoint Development Capital, Eight Roads Ventures , Hoxton Ventures , Hummingbird Ventures, Index Ventures , and JamJar Investments  (the venture arm of drinks company Innocent) all number among its backers. 

Deliveroo’s turnover in 2016 was £129m, although its operating profit is in the red, increasing from £30m in 2015 to £141m last year. This is not, however, unusual for fast-growing companies, which rely heavily on investment whilst they acquire users, and seek to increase profit over time.

After seven investment rounds, and thus a degree of dilution, Deliveroo’s founder Will Shu has shares in the company worth approximately £167m.