By Eric Auchard
FRANKFURT, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Deliveroo has raised another $100 million in venture financing, its third investment round this year, as it rapidly seeks to expand its high-end restaurant takeaway order business to Asia, the company said on Tuesday.
London-based Deliveroo is looking to distinguish itself in the crowded market for online food delivery services, globally one of the hottest markets for start-up investment with dozens of funding rounds this year.
The company offers local food delivery services for sit-down restaurants which don't typically offer takeaway options themselves. Orders carry a fixed fee of 2.50 pounds per order and it promises 30-minute wait times. Establishments served range from Michelin-starred restaurants to high street eateries.
Its closest competitors range from Just-Eat EAT.L which listed in London last year, Delivery Hero and Rocket Internet's RKET.DE Global Online Takeaway Group, both of Germany. All focus on the mass market takeaway business, unlike Deliveroo.
The latest round of $100 million was led by DST Global, the investment vehicle of Silicon Valley-based Russian Internet financier Yuri Milner who backed Facebook (O:FB), Twitter (N:TWTR) and Alibaba (N:BABA), and emerging markets e-commerce investor Greenoaks Capital, it said. Shu declined to comment on the valuation of the latest funding round.
Founded two years ago and active in eight European markets so far, Deliveroo is opening up in five major cities in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore this week.
"What we look for is population density, affluence and restaurant supply," said Co-founder and Chief Executive William Shu, a former Morgan Stanley (N:MS) banker turned entrepreneur, of criteria used to enter new cities.
The company, which only entered Brighton, its second city in Britain in January, has now expanded rapidly into 30 UK cities. Globally, it works with more than 5,000 restaurants so far, Shu said.
The company, with 300 employees, relies on a network of 2,500 Deliveroo-jacketed contractors to transport meal orders via car or bicycle.
Deliveroo also took $70 million in July and $25 million and in January. Existing investors Accel, Index Ventures and Hummingbird Ventures joined the new, so-called Series D round.