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Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

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Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#51
post #44

Money Quote: "Deliveroo grew a lot in 2016, with revenue up 611 per cent to £129 million. But losses were up too — a 300 per cent increase to £129 million. However, the figure to really watch is the food delivery company’s gross margin percentage, which sat at just 0.7 per cent. " How can an investor, justify this as a solid investment when the gross margins are 0.7%?

It's been clear to me for a while that valuations lack any rational basis. I reached this conclusion shortly after Yo was valued at something like $10 million.

There still is money to be made in a bubble. Just gotta find some greater fool to sell the shares to and book that capital gain. Which usually (at the end of the road) ends up being a pension fund.

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#52
post #6

What have Deliveroo done differently to be more successful than the food delivery startups that came before?

In Reading where I used to live all they did was link me up with restaurants I actually want to eat at but can't because of kids or work or whatever instead of just disgusting quality pizza/curry/chinese/fried chicken joints

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#53

I find it funny they're claiming some sort of AI system will help them make better margins. In my city, Nottingham. all the deliveroo people gather in Trinity Square waiting for jobs. There's obviously no special AI needed. I do think though that it raises the issue that they should be paying for their own business premises and stop using our public spaces as their company waiting spots.

To be fair, a few motorbikes/bicycles temporarily waiting next to each other is not such a big deal to me in comparison to the fact that roughly half of every street in every big city in the UK is dedicated to parked cars. Putting aside the apparently shitty working conditions at gig economy companies like Deliveroo (which I dearly hope will be resolved with all the recent bad publicity around Uber and co), I like the idea of sharing the delivery services previously provided by individual restaurants between all. This is at least one positive aspect of the "sharing economy", which will hopefully also reduce the number of parked cars clogging up our roads.

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#54
Currently there is a £2.50 fee for deliveries in London with Deliveroo. Even with extreme optimization a Deliveroo rider can't possibly make more than 3-4 "proper" deliveries in an hour (food gets cold fast! And when it gets returned deliveroo & the restaurant suffers) so maybe they can generate around £10/hour in revenue for Deliveroo. Then you need to take out costs for the driver, development, marketing, integration withe restaurants, etc.

So where is Deliveroo's margin on that? There isn't one, and there's no way they can pay delivery drivers as actual employees (which the law will eventually catch up with by the way), even at minimum wage you'd need to cover £15+/hour to include holiday pay, sick pay, insurance and other standard benefits.

MAYBE, delivery drones / robots will arrive before the funding runs out, but I doubt it very much.

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#55
post #5

Another unicorn that can only exist because it uses fake self-employment to turn their workforce into a cheaper one. Just like Uber and so many others this only works because for some reason turning paid work into something that is not even self-sustaining suddenly is accepted. Does nobody have ethical issues with seeing value in devaluing people?

It's even worse than Uber. With Uber, at least you can drive for multiple companies at the same time. If you want to bike for both Deliveroo and, say, Foodora you need to first go home and swap one branded backpack for the other. (Not sure if that's an international thing - here in NL the delivery people use bikes and have branded backpacks)

In the UK, it’s very common to see riders with a wide mix of differently branded clothing, bikes, boxes, etc. Very common for them to be working for Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Jinn, Etefy, etc. all at the same time

There may be some kind of rule around consistent branding, but I have never seen it enforced.

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#56

Currently there is a £2.50 fee for deliveries in London with Deliveroo. Even with extreme optimization a Deliveroo rider can't possibly make more than 3-4 "proper" deliveries in an hour (food gets cold fast! And when it gets returned deliveroo & the restaurant suffers) so maybe they can generate around £10/hour in revenue for Deliveroo. Then you need to take out costs for the driver, development, marketing, integrati…

Don’t they get a discount on the food? That’s how a lot of the other services make it...

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#57
post #20
post #10

For those wondering about these numbers, Deliveroo has a great concept, solid execution and huge brand recognition. Just-eat (worth 4.6B) connects people to shitty takeaways and has a terrible website. Deliveroo connects people to restaurants and provides the delivery service themselves, through bikers (here in London). They have taken this and spread throughout Europe. They are going to (and are) completely canablis…

What makes you think Just-Eat ran out of steam "years ago"? Stock price is higher than ever: http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/prices-and-marke... They are reporting good growth: http://www.cityam.com/256734/just-eat-reported-order-growth-... I see lots of Deliveroo bikes around where I live in the centre of London, but they are basically non-existant when I go to other towns and cities. Also, Deliveroo sta…

Entirely anecdotal, but my perception of Just Eat, Hungry House, etc. is of consistently crap takeaway food. I do not, and will not, order from them. Their reviews are completely untrustworthy - you literally never know what you’re going to get. There is no image to hurt - they’re the lowest of the low.

In the UK, Deliveroo originally differentiated primarily by only accepting high quality restaurants, rather than takeaways.

Just Eat, etc. may try to improve their image, offer remotely usable interfaces, clean up their offerings in terms of food quality, but I don’t think their reputation will ever recover to the point that anyone in London etc. would consider them above Deliveroo/Uber Eats.

Not sure how closely these views tally with others, but they are representative of my friends/peers.

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#58
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar at Angel, London. They gather at the shell petrol station; also for some strange reason pretty much all of them speak brazilian portuguese.

Is that strange because they aren't Brazilian?

They are Brazilians with paulistas accent. It's strange that they are, all, Brazilians.

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#59

Currently there is a £2.50 fee for deliveries in London with Deliveroo. Even with extreme optimization a Deliveroo rider can't possibly make more than 3-4 "proper" deliveries in an hour (food gets cold fast! And when it gets returned deliveroo & the restaurant suffers) so maybe they can generate around £10/hour in revenue for Deliveroo. Then you need to take out costs for the driver, development, marketing, integrati…

I have no doubt Deliveroo gets a percentage cut on the cost of the food, too. That can really add up all by itself.

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#60

Currently there is a £2.50 fee for deliveries in London with Deliveroo. Even with extreme optimization a Deliveroo rider can't possibly make more than 3-4 "proper" deliveries in an hour (food gets cold fast! And when it gets returned deliveroo & the restaurant suffers) so maybe they can generate around £10/hour in revenue for Deliveroo. Then you need to take out costs for the driver, development, marketing, integrati…

A delivery driver can, for a fact, make more than 3-4 deliveries an hour. You would be fired if you made that many deliveries even in a non-optimized envoirment. You are assuming alot of things here.
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