Deliveroo, the U.K.-based food delivery company, has landed $385 million in a new round of venture funding.
According to a news report in the Financial Times citing sources close to the company, with this latest fundraising Deliveroo is valued at around $2 billion. The lead investors in the fundraising include Fidelity and T. Rowe Price, two U.S.-based mutual fund companies that have invested in other technology companies, including Amazon, Facebook, Airbnb, Snap and Tesla.
“We think they’ll be very useful to have on the investment team in the event of an IPO,” one person close to the company told the Financial Times. Last week, the U.K. startup announced that last year’s revenue was up 611 percent to £128.6m, while losses went from £30.1m to £129.1m.
Deliveroo stands as one of the most funded startups in Europe, raising a total of $857.7 million. Some of the other investors include Bridgepoint and General Catalyst Partners, noted the report. At the end of last year, the company had £157m left in cash. Currently, Deliveroo operates in 140 cities in 12 countries. The widening of losses for the year was blamed in part for a huge expansion of the company’s workforce to support growth.
The latest funding comes as competition is heating up in the U.K. food delivery market. This past summer, Just Eat shared plans to move up a notch to take on bigger competitors like Deliveroo and UberEats. While Just Eat typically works with smaller restaurants, its interim chief executive shared the news that it is quietly running tests with casual dining restaurant chains. During this beta test time, Just Eat has not confirmed with which U.K. restaurants it is working.