Roofoods Ltd, trading as Deliveroo, is a British multinational online food delivery company owned by DoorDash since its takeover in October 2025. Based in London, it worked with around 182,000 restaurants, grocers, and retailers as of August of the previous year.
The firm also provides delivery and technology for on-demand grocery to major UK retailers. In addition, Deliveroo Editions is its subsidiary operation that operates dark kitchens for the preparation of delivery-only meals.
Its initial public offering was widely reported as one of the worst debuts in the history of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), with shares falling sharply on the first day of trading.
Business History and basic operations Deliveroo was founded in 2013 by Will Shu and Greg Orlowski. The company makes revenue by charging restaurants a commission fee, as well as by charging customers a per-order fee for delivery. It operates in the UK, France, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, and United Arab Emirates. In 2022, Deliveroo launched an advertising platform enabling businesses to promote products across its app.
Customers place orders through its app or website, then self-employed bicycle or motorcycle couriers transport orders from restaurants to them. Since 2016 its logo has referenced a simplified kangaroo character.
In November 2017, Deliveroo introduced Deliveroo Plus, a subscription service which gives customers in the UK and Ireland unlimited free delivery.
Deliveroo works with some of the biggest chain restaurants across the UK, along with thousands of independent restaurants. On 16 November 2016, it became known that the brewing company Heineken International had closed a deal for Deliveroo to deliver the latter's beers and ciders, initially across 15 sites in London, Bath and Cardiff. This delivery deal, whose activities started that same week, was considered the biggest one of its kind (that is, with regards to the brewing industry).
In mid-June 2016, the founders of Deliveroo, Will Shu and Greg Orlowski received an award for the Best Startup Founders as part of The Europas Startup Conference and Awards, mainly given to technology companies. The company also received Fastest Rising Startup of the Year and the Europas Grand Prix award.
In January 2017, Deliveroo announced plans to create 300 tech jobs in the UK when it opened its new head office in London later in 2017. That month the company had more than 1,000 full-time employees. As of 2022, Deliveroo employs over 3,000 staff globally.
In April 2017, Deliveroo's Editions kitchens launched. These delivery-only kitchens allow restaurants to access customers in locations without needing High Street premises, thereby reducing set-up costs compared to a full-service restaurant. Deliveroo uses its data to identify areas where customer demand for certain cuisines is high and predicts which restaurants are likely to succeed there.
In June 2018, Deliveroo launched ‘Marketplace+’, which enables restaurants with their own delivery fleets to operate on Deliveroo's platform. These restaurants can also access Deliveroo's network of riders to extend their delivery services.
In May 2019, Amazon has partnered with the company to offer free delivery linked to Amazon Prime accounts.
In November 2019, Deliveroo launched ‘Pick-Up’ - a click & collect service allowing customers to order food for collection. Restaurants who had signed up to offer the service at its launch included Byron, Pizza Express and Pizza Hut. In March 2020, Deliveroo launched its on demand grocery service and has since partnered with retail chains M&S, Aldi, Waitrose, Sainsbury's and others.
In September 2021, Deliveroo launched rapid grocery delivery service HOP. The service promises delivery to customers “in as little as 10 minutes” with the first Deliveroo Hop dark store launched in central London, serving residents in Vauxhall and Battersea.
Since 2021, Deliveroo has struck partnerships with major grocery partners including Morrisons, Waitrose, Co-op, Sainbury's, SPA, Asda and Wholefoods in the UK; and in international markets with Esselunga in Italy, Auchan in France and ParknShop in Hong Kong as part of its on demand grocery and HOP service. In the second half of 2022, grocery accounted for 11% of the company's Gross Transaction Value.
In October 2022, Deliveroo opened its first brick and mortar high street store on New Oxford Street. Customers are able to shop in-store by ordering through digital kiosks; ordering via the Deliveroo app for collection at the store; and for delivery to local residents, offices and other addresses via Deliveroo's network of riders. The Deliveroo HOP on New Oxford Street offers grocery items from Morrisons ‘Ready to Eat’ and ‘The Best’ ranges to store cupboard staples, snacks and dinner ingredients.
Economic impacts in the UK In December 2017, a study by macroeconomic consultancy Capital Economics stated that Deliveroo had helped create 7,200 jobs across the restaurant sector since it launched in 2013. It also boosted the industry's revenue by £460 million in the year to June 2017. The report also found that Deliveroo had helped add £372 million in value to the UK economy in the same 12-month period, a figure which Capital Economics projected to rise to £1.5 billion in the year to June 2019.
Competition Deliveroo's main competitors are Just Eat and Uber Eats. In 2021, Deliveroo expanded its UK population coverage to 77% compared to 53% at the end of 2020.
Deliveroo has made public its goal to build a leading market position (#1 or strong #2) in every market in which it operates. As a result of that goal, it ended its operations in the Netherlands on 30 November 2022, citing that "it would require a disproportionate level of investment, with uncertain returns, to reach and sustain a top-tier market position".Deliveroo plc Half-yearly financial report 2022 https://dpd-12774-s3.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/7916/6010/7981/Deliveroo_H12022_Interim_Results_RNS.pdf
Layoffs or redundancies In April 2020, Deliveroo made 15% of the workforce redundant, citing COVID-19 as the reason.
In Feb 2023, Deliveroo made 9% of the workforce redundant, with CEO Will Shu saying the reason was having “in recent years we grew our headcount very quickly. This was a response to unprecedented growth rates supported by Covid-related tail winds. I should have had a more balanced approach to headcount growth."
Technical malfunctions On 7 September 2016, the Deliveroo website and application crashed in the British city of Chelmsford, reportedly due to a high demand on the first night of launching its service there.
On Tuesday 1 November 2016, at around 8 pm (GMT), technical problems caused the Deliveroo system in the UK to go offline for around an hour. Reportedly, thousands of customers who had already paid for their orders got upset due to a lack of clear communication being provided by the company during the incident, with some customers having to wait hours to get their food delivered.
During any periods when the system is down, and therefore no deliveries are available for riders, Deliveroo pays riders a flat rate per hour until the system is restored.
Funding In June 2014, Deliveroo raised a £2.75 million series A investment round from Index Ventures and Hoxton Ventures, as well as an assortment of angel investors. In January 2015, Roofoods Ltd, doing business as Deliveroo, received US$25 million in series B funding led by Accel with participation from Index Ventures, Hummingbird Ventures and Hoxton Ventures at an estimated valuation of $100 million. At this time, Deliveroo was providing deliveries for approximately 750 restaurants. In July of that year, it secured a further $70 million in series C investment from Index Ventures and Greenoaks Capital, marking Deliveroo's third funding round in a year.
In November 2015, Deliveroo raised $100 million in Series D Funding. In August 2016, Deliveroo raised a Series E of $275 million from the hedge fund Bridgepoint.
In September 2017, the company announced a $385 million Series F round. In November of the same year, an additional $98 million was announced, bringing the total Series F round to $480 million.
In May 2019, the company announced a $575 million Series G round led by Amazon, bringing the total raised to date to $1.35 billion.
In January 2021, the company announced a $180 million Series H round raised from existing investors, bringing the total raised to date to $1.53 billion.
Taylor Review In October 2016, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced a review of employment practices in the modern economy, chaired by Chief Executive of the RSA Matthew Taylor. The review was criticised, accusing the probe of being biased as it was revealed by the Financial Times that one of its members was an early backer of Deliveroo, a fact that was not disclosed to the public. In its submission to the review, Deliveroo called on the Government to update legislation to allow the company to offer its riders rights – such as injury pay and sick pay – without limiting the flexibility which comes with self-employment. The company was the first in the on-demand economy to ask for changes in legislation to enable it to offer self-employed riders more benefits.
Deliveroo argued that current employment legislation meant that companies in the on-demand economy were forced to choose between offering riders flexible work or benefits. Deliveroo suggested that the Government either allow companies to offer entitlements to self-employed people, or create a new category of employment in which benefits are calculated on the services they deliver instead of how many hours they work.
Rider working conditions In March 2016, Australian-based employment lawyer Josh Bornstein, principal at Maurice Blackburn, examined work contracts from Deliveroo and its competitor Foodora and described the contracts as "sham", designed to pay workers "below the award rates" and to "deny their basic benefits". Maurice Blackburn announced that test cases against Deliveroo, as well as against Foodora, were being prepared wherein they were "accused of under-paying their delivery riders and failing to meet minimum employment conditions". Such allegations were confirmed by the Young Workers Centre in Australia, which claimed that the contracting arrangements by those companies left workers without access to minimum pay rates, WorkCover insurance, leave and superannuation. The centre's "Rights for Riders" campaign aims "to improve safety, pay, conditions and job security for food delivery riders".Young Workers Centre, Rights for Riders FAQs, accessed 3 January 2017
In August 2016, a group of Deliveroo's London drivers held a day-long strike to protest about a new pay plan which they claimed would result in riders earning substantially below the minimum wage, and the continuing lack of sick and accident pay. The company later abandoned these plans.
During these strikes, as a means of protest, London Deliveroo drivers held up signs containing the neologism "Slaveroo". The term and its corresponding social media hashtag were adopted by several news outlets, including non-English international media. In the aftermath of these protests, Mags Dewhurst, chair of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) Couriers and Logistics Branch, which represents some couriers and delivery drivers in London, published an article in The Guardian backing the protesters, saying that Deliveroo's claims of offering freedom and flexibility, vis-à-vis its couriers, were a sham, calling them "bywords for exploitation and exhaustion".