MILANO – In the aftermath of Deliveroo’s listing on the London Stock Exchange – the largest IPO since Glencore, but with a cold reception from the market as it closed with a 26% thud amid investor fears about the work of the riders – it’s up to Glovo to announce an important financial and also strategic operation. The home delivery platform, which unlike Deliveroo does not only deal with food but other product categories, has closed a round of financing of 450 million: the New York fund has led the investors Lugard Road Capital with Luxor Capital Group. Previous investors also participated in the round – Delivery Hero, Drake Enterprises e GP Bullhound.
The destination of this round of investments, a record for a Spanish startup, is interesting: Glovo takes a step towards physical commerce in the 20 markets where it operates. The company calls it Quick Commerce: the home delivery service for groceries and other products in a few minutes at any time of the day, which aims to make Glovo the “App for the city”. To be able to guarantee these immediate deliveries, it will invest in the expansion of its storage centers for consumer goods: the so-called dark stores in the nerve centers of the cities, which will globally be 200 by the end of 2021.
The development also concerns Italy, where – explains the general manager Elisa Pagliarani commenting on the news – “we inaugurated our second dark store in Milan and the first in Turin and we aim to have at least 15 in the area by the end of the year. , scheduling over 100 hires as dedicated staff “.
The purchases that will pass through these logistic nodes are “last minute” or “emergency”. A type of shopping limited to a few products, which customers can take through the riders or go directly to pick up with the “pick up” at the dark store, after filling their online basket. In fact, Glovo explains that this service wants to be complementary to the traditional shopping that the company already offers through supermarkets, thanks to agreements with partners such as Carrefour or Gruppo Végé: “In fact, shopping via dark stores is aimed at a consumer who wants to satisfy a immediate need and which therefore rewards the speed of delivery compared to a wide choice of brands or products “.
The objective of this development, entrusted in Italy to the Argentine Agustina Clair – Head of Q-Commerce and Food Innovation – is to arrive in perspective to deliver the micro-shopping in less than 10 minutes. “The Quick Commerce represents the third evolution of commerce: home delivery not in days or hours, but in minutes, thanks to the capillarity of the offer”, the conviction of Pagliarani.