Deliveroo has said it will create more than 300 new tech jobs in London when it opens its new global headquarters in the capital.
The startup said in a statement that many of the new hires would be senior software and hardware engineers.
Deliveroo, which has raised a staggering $474.59m in funding to date and is now competing against the likes of UberEATS, is thought to employ over 1,000 people across the globe with approximately 125 of these working in tech roles.
Will Shu, the founder and CEO, commented on the news: “Deliveroo is going from strength to strength and growing every single day. London is where I founded this company and it’s from our headquarters here that we export our British-born technology around the world.
“When so many of the success stories in the on-demand economy have been grown from America, I am particularly proud to be doing this here in Britain,” he added.
Since launching in 2013, Deliveroo has expanded to 130 cities across 12 countries and has received financial backing from prominent venture capital investors such as Accel Partners (an early investor in Facebook and Dropbox) and Index Ventures, which participated in Funding Circle’s latest $100m round.
The news comes after the firm, which claims to have grown by over 60% last year, came under fire after some of its riders demanded unionisation and workers’ rights in November 2016.
Several of the firm’s drivers hosted a series of protests in Central London in response to a trial offered by the company which would see hourly rates reduced to £3.75 during quieter delivery periods.
Deliveroo later guaranteed at least £7.50 an hour and petrol for those willing to participate.
An outside view
Phil Cox, head of EMEA and president of the UK branch of Silicon Valley Bank, shared his opinion on the performance of the FoodTech and on-demand delivery sectors last year.
“We saw managed food delivery escalate in 2016 with the arrival of Uber’s on-demand service UberEats,” he said, adding that since launching last year, the service had gone on to expand to 56 markets, showing no clear signs of slowing down.
Recent deals across Europe, Cox commented, indicate that only the most scalable and cost effective food delivery firms would survive.
“Expect to see more food delivery deals and food waste solutions,” Cox said.