Delivery Hero delivered 71m orders in October overtaking UberEats as the largest food delivery platform outside China

When you’re talking about European outliers, especially in Berlin, it’s impossible to not name Delivery Hero, their meteoric rise did lots to really show what could be built here and especially in Berlin.

Successes of such magnitude go a long way in creating critical mass and narrative that attracts inward investment and acts as a magnet for the ecosystem to attract kick ass talent and of course beyond experienced alumni often go on add value as operators, angels and investors in the next generation of startups.

With Delivery Hero now being a public company it would be easy to dismiss their ability to innovate with the constraints of transparency required of a public company, especially in an ever increasing red ocean industry globally, but in October they delivered a record number of orders, founder Niklas Ostberg commented “In October Delivery Hero delivered 71m order and overtook UberEats as the largest food delivery platform outside China”

Given my JUST EAT DNA and history, saying well done to Delivery Hero is somewhat through gritted teeth as I feel that JE really had the ability and head start to grow to dominate the entire industry globally, but I’ve got nothing but respect and admiration for the great job Niklas and his team have done to overtake JUST EAT. There have been hugely bold and brave moves such as exiting their home market in Germany, selling their business there to Takeaway.com for $1.1Bn as per the Techcrunch article by Ingrid Lunden below.

Why did they do this?… because they saw an even bigger opportunity to win new and exciting markets, innovating and introducing forward thinking products, I have heard from internal sources that the growth in Asia especially is skyrocketing, so for me it was a series of wise, brave moves, all alluding to the fact that Delivery Hero play the long game, focussing not on where the ball is now, but where it will be.

Not so known Fact: I was in contact with Niklas when they were but a year old company and we should of had a coffee, but for a variety of reasons such as schedules and my non compete clause at JE, it didn’t happen, if it had of happened and I possibly joined them, I wouldn’t of sold my shares in the IPO and I wouldn’t of sold them now, as I truly believe Delivery Hero are still only getting started and will go on to grow much further for many years to come.

Delivery Hero have been great for the Berlin technology startup ecosystem, where I am now based and I wish them every success moving forwards, I also hope JUST EAT continue to be a good dancing partner. It’s positive for Europe and Food Tech.

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