Deliveroo

Deliveroo, the trading name of Roofoods Ltd, is a British multinational online food delivery company headquartered in London. Customers order through its app or website and self-employed bicycle, motorcycle and car couriers transport orders from restaurants and shops to them. As of August of the year preceding 2025 it worked with around 182,000 restaurants, grocers and retailers; a separate account cites roughly 176,000 restaurant, grocery and retail partners and more than 130,000 riders. It operates in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

Beyond restaurant delivery, Deliveroo provides delivery and technology for on-demand grocery to major UK retailers, and runs Deliveroo Editions, a subsidiary operation of dark kitchens for delivery-only meal preparation, launched in April 2017. Other services include Deliveroo Plus, a subscription giving unlimited free delivery in the UK and Ireland (November 2017); Marketplace+, allowing restaurants with their own fleets to trade on the platform (June 2018); Pick-Up click-and-collect (November 2019); an on-demand grocery service (March 2020); the rapid grocery service HOP (September 2021), including a first physical HOP store on New Oxford Street in October 2022; and an advertising platform launched in 2022. In the second half of 2022 grocery accounted for 11% of gross transaction value.

The company reported revenue of £2,071.9 million for 2024, with an operating loss of £12.4 million and a net loss of £0.1 million. It listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2021 in a debut widely reported as one of the worst in LSE history, with shares falling 30% on the first day. DoorDash agreed to acquire Deliveroo in May 2025 and completed the takeover on 2 October 2025.

Founding story

Will Shu, who had previously worked in finance, moved to London from the United States and found that few of the city's restaurants delivered. He founded Deliveroo in 2013 with childhood friend Greg Orlowski to bring restaurant-quality food to customers at home, frequently making deliveries himself by bike in the early days. One account states the service launched in London in 2012.

Business model

Deliveroo operates a three-sided marketplace linking consumers, restaurant/grocery/retail partners and self-employed couriers. Alongside third-party restaurant delivery it runs its own dark kitchen network (Editions), grocery delivery and rapid grocery stores (HOP), a consumer subscription (Plus), a click-and-collect option, and an advertising platform for partners.

Revenue comes from commission fees charged to restaurants and per-order delivery fees charged to customers, supplemented by subscription fees for Deliveroo Plus and, since 2022, advertising sold to businesses promoting products across the app.

Traction

Revenue reached £2,071.9 million in 2024, with an operating loss of £12.4 million and a net loss of £0.1 million. The company worked with around 182,000 restaurant, grocery and retail partners as of August of the previous year (about 176,000 per another account) and more than 130,000 riders, reported as 135,000 self-employed couriers in 2025. Staff numbers grew from more than 1,000 full-time employees in January 2017 to over 3,000 globally as of 2022. Grocery represented 11% of gross transaction value in the second half of 2022. A December 2017 Capital Economics study attributed 7,200 restaurant-sector jobs and a £460 million revenue uplift in the year to June 2017 to Deliveroo, plus £372 million of value added to the UK economy.

Latest developments

Will Shu announced on 18 September 2025 that he would step down as CEO once the DoorDash acquisition completed, with the board including chair Claudia Arney also standing down; the deal closed on 2 October 2025. In February 2026, DoorDash confirmed Deliveroo would cease operations in Qatar and Singapore, with platforms remaining active until 4 March and around 85 jobs affected, and would close a Bengaluru engineering hub affecting about 100 employees, while investing in additional UK engineering roles. Miki Kuusi, head of DoorDash International, is chief executive of Deliveroo.