“Smaller opportunistic” acquisitions likely to follow DoorDash purchase of Deliveroo, says Glovo founder

The co-founder of Glovo, the Spanish food delivery app owned by Germany's Delivery Hero, says future consolidation in the food delivery sector will likely be limited to smaller “opportunistic” acquisitions.

Sacha Michaud, co-founder, Glovo, said: "I think there are not too many players now to consolidate. There are some big companies. It might just be some very opportunistic, smaller companies being acquired.”

Earlier this week, Deliveroo, the UK based food delivery app, agreed to be acquired by US giant DoorDash in a deal valuing the business at £2.9bn. The combined company will have a presence in more than 40 countries serving about 50 million customers per month.

Michaud said the deal was a “positive” thing for the food delivery market in Europe and that there was huge growth potential in Europe compared to Asia, saying that average food orders per month in Europe were “tiny” compared to Asia.

He added: "The growth of our industry is huge and it’s going to be through quick commerce.” The tie-up is expected to provide competition to rivals like Just Eat and Uber Eats in the UK. The tie-up comes amid broader consolidation across the food delivery sector. 

Earlier this year, Just Eat was snapped up by South African-owned internet investor Prosus while Deliveroo sold parts of its Hong Kong business to Delivery Hero.

Separately, Michaud, who heads up global affairs at Glovo, added his voice to the debate about whether European founders lack ambition compared to US founders.

He said: “I think the ambition is there. The reality is that role models are key for startups. We need more role models. We need some Steve Jobs, Bill Gates Europeans.

“There have been some great companies out of Europe. I think European founders are super-ambitious."

Michaud was speaking at the SIM conference today in Porto.