Over the last few years, entrepreneurs and VCs alike have made big bets on smartphone-driven convenience and the promise of getting you food or just about anything delivered to your door within minutes. But, like any maturing market, we’ve already seen a number of players being acquired or entering the dead-pool, and a crowded market is always ripe for further consolidation.
Enter Spain’s Glovo, which operates a local on-demand delivery service similar to Postmates in the US, or Jinn and Quiqup in the UK. The Barcelona-based startup has acquired Italy’s Foodinho as a first foray into international expansion. Matteo Pichi, Foodinho founder, will become Glovo’s new Country Manager in Italy.
Operating in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia — and, thanks to this acquisition — Milan, Glovo offers an app that promises to get you anything you want from any shop or restaurant in your city and deliver it in under an hour. That’s much broader than Foodinho’s original proposition, which focused on restaurants only.
“We know Italy is a great opportunity for us and we aim to become the leader on this market,” Glovo co-founder and CEO Oscar Pierre tells TechCrunch. “So far, Foodinho has just been offering food delivery but as you know, our vision goes beyond that, aiming to be the leading mobile integrated marketplace with same hour delivery.”
The acquisition — which was all-cash and saw a “profit” for Foodinho’s investors — marks the start of Glovo’s internationalization, which Michaud says is the main goal this year. “Paris is the next major city we will be launching and we expect to be there soon,” he says.
That’s particularly noteworthy given that Tok Tok Tok is well-established in the French capital city, while Stuart, which raised a whopping €22 million pre-launch, is also present. All three companies would argue they offer a slightly different take on the local on-demand delivery model but there’s enough overlap for things to get interesting.