Glovo, a food delivery app which is thrashing Uber Eats in parts of Europe, just acquired a Polish competitor for $39 million

Glovo

Glovo founders Sacha Michaud and Oscar Pierre.

• Spanish food delivery startup Glovo acquired Polish competitor PizzaPortal for €35 million ($39 million).
• Glovo competes with Uber Eats in some European markets, and is beating the company in Spain and Italy.
• The acquisition comes after Glovo raised €150 million ($166 million) in new funding, and is an attempt to carve out market share against rivals.
• Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said this week that Uber Eats wanted to beat well-funded domestic competitors like Glovo to the number one or number two spot in each market, or else pull out.

Glovo, the Spanish food delivery service that rivals Uber Eats in Europe, has acquired Polish service PizzaPortal for €35 million ($39 million).

Glovo bought the company from AmRest Holdings SE, the eastern European holding firm that owns PizzaPortal parent company Polska Sp. z o.o.

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The food delivery market is worth an estimated $35 billion - and predicted to be worth $365 billion in a decade - but also chocked with players ranging from international giants like Uber Eats to well-funded local competition like Glovo and the UK's Deliveroo. That Glovo is acquiring may be a sign of further consolidation to come.

Glovo described PizzaPortal as Poland's biggest food delivery startup, potentially meaning the Spanish startup will lead the market after the acquisition. Pyszne.pl is another major rival in Poland.

The acquisition comes after Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi outlined a new strategy for rival Uber Eats: dominate the market, or quit. He acknowledged directly that local competitors - like Glovo - are now well-funded and hard to beat.

Khosrowshahi said during Uber's third-quarter earnings call on Monday: "We're going to shoot to get to number one and number two in every market that we're in. If we can't make it to that level, we'll look to dispose or we'll get out of the market."

Glovo operates in 26 countries and 247 cities, and offers more than just food delivery.

Customers can order items from the pharmacy, the supermarket, as well as food to go. The company is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain and mostly focuses on eastern European, Mediterranean, and Latin countries. The firm told Business Insider earlier this year that it is ahead of Uber Eats in terms of market share in Italy and Spain.

The Spanish startup says it has 1.8 million monthly active users, and has raised $346 million to date. It is reportedly thinking about a public float, per Bloomberg.

A UBS research note from 2018 indicates that Glovo is indeed beating Uber Eats in terms of share of app downloads in both markets, per the charts below:

UBS

According to UBS, Glovo is beating Uber Eats in terms of app downloads in Spain and Italy.

UBS Evidence Lab

UBS data shows Glovo is beating Uber Eats in terms of app downloads in Italy, but lags behind Just Eat.

Glovo will use the acquisition as a springboard for a tech hub in Warsaw, Poland.

CEO Oscar Pierre said: "Glovo continues to experience rapid growth, and following the success of our previous round of investment, we're continuing our expansion into new markets. With the acquisition of PizzaPortal, we're pleased to be further strengthening our strategic partnership with AmRest and excited for the opportunities that this presents. Our ambition is to lead every market we enter and to provide a first-class, express delivery experience for our users, Glovers and partners."