London (AFP) – Will Shu, founder of food delivery app Deliveroo, will step down as its chief executive once US rival DoorDash completes a takeover of the British group, a statement said Thursday. DoorDash in May agreed to buy Deliveroo for £2.9 billion ($4 billion) in a deal expected to be completed at the start of October.
“Taking Deliveroo from being an idea to what it is today has been amazing,” Shu said in the statement. “Today the company’s growth and profitability are accelerating and we are delivering on our mission to transform the way people shop and eat, but after 13 years I want to contemplate my next challenge,” the American added. The DoorDash deal will create a delivery service present in more than 40 countries, serving around 50 million monthly-active users.
Deliveroo posted its first annual profit in March following sizeable full-year losses owing to high investment costs since Shu founded the company. The company’s initial public offering in 2021 had been London’s biggest stock market launch for a decade, valuing the group at £7.6 billion. The offer from DoorDash is worth £1.80, less than half Deliveroo’s IPO price of £3.90.
Shu got the idea to start his own business after struggling to find restaurants that would deliver food to the London office where he often stayed late to work as a financial analyst. Years after personally making Deliveroo’s first delivery in London, the company experienced a surge in demand during the Covid-19 pandemic from lockdown-hit customers. However, increased competition saw it scale back global operations, most recently with an exit from Hong Kong.
San Francisco-based DoorDash, the largest food delivery app in the United States, entered the European market in 2021 with the purchase of Finland-based Wolt for $8.1 billion. As big players in the gig economy, food delivery apps have faced controversy over the status of their self-employed riders. In late 2023, the UK Supreme Court ruled that Deliveroo riders were not entitled to trade union rights such as collective bargaining.
© 2024 AFP
