Investors now worry whether Amazon or Uber could bring any sizeable money in foreseeable future. One of the reasons is Amazon’s investment in the loss making London-based Deliveroo which operates in nearly 500 European and Asian cities.
On Friday Deliveroo announced that it has raised $575 million from investors led by Amazon, which is being currently valued at $940 billion. Deliveroo’s founder has so far raised $1.5 billion. He was previously a banker at Canary Wharf and started Deliveroo to boost quality delivery options.
The fundraising may feed into Deliveroo’s rivalry with Uber Eats. These services charge restaurants and diners a certain fee on every order that goes towards paying the drivers. In 2017, payment for cyclists and moped drivers accounted almost 4/5th of Deliveroo’s £277 million sales. Its operations and investments accounted for another $155 million or 2/3rd of the funds the founder raised that year. So even though Deliveroo has expanded since then, it remains locked up in a price war with Uber Eats. Deliveroo previously flaunted a $2 billion price tag.
But Amazon’s arrival in the scene may have prolonged the conflict. It twice approached Deliveroo about a potential acquisition if not a full purchase. Or, it may want to learn more about delivery strategies-an area where Amazon lags behind Uber Eats in the U.S.
The biggest losers in this conflict could be ride-hailing services like Uber of which Uber Eats is a part. The value of publicly traded peers Just Eat, Takeaway.com and Delivery Hero fell in value by a collective $965 million, or 5%, on Friday morning. Thin margins and deep-pocketed rivals are the perfect ingredients for perpetual losses all round.