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Rumor about going public

In October 2021, there are several rumors that Glovo will go public in the next year. It is a startup out of Spain with 10 million users that delivers restaurant take-out, groceries and other items. In fact, the Spanish home delivery startup already has the advice of Morgan Stanley. As a result, the company seems to take the previous steps for its jump to the market in 2022.

What’s more, Glovo picked up a Series F of $528mn (€450mn) in the beginning of 2021. This deal can be a milestone funding round not for the company but its home country, Spain. This is because $528mn was the largest-ever round raised by a Spanish startup.

Rider law

Glovo seems to need more money to keep the top position especially in its home market, Spain. This is because what is called “Rider Law” changed its business environment drastically. Due to the law, home delivery or ride hailing companies must give their drivers greater employment rights. Deliveroo, which is an English food delivery company, withdrew in Spain only months after the enforcement of the new law . This was because the company thought that it needed too much investment compared with its other markets.

The English takeaway app company understood that it had relatively small market share in Spain. As a result, to achieve and sustain a top-tier market position in Spain would need huge investment. In addition, they did feel that it had highly uncertain long-term potential returns. Even though, Deliveroo thought that Spain’s employment rights law was not the determining factor, the new law made it decide an earlier withdrawal from the country.

Customer interview

We did some customer interviews in Barcelona, Spain. One of them told us that he could not help but use Glovo. This was because he liked Deliveroo before and used it almost every day especially after the pandemic. Also, he had used Glovo in 2017 and felt that its user experience (UX) was bad at that time. In fact, its driver had visited the other house next to him many times. That was why he loved its competitor, Deliveroo.

After using the English food delivery service, the interviewee is using Glovo again. He said to us that Glovo’s UX is much better than in 2017. We think that this is the reason why the company becomes the top-tier market share in Spain and other countries. Potential initial public offering (IPO) will be able to give not only more money but more opportunities for the company. The Spanish unicorn can be more famous, more reliable, and expand its capabilities based on the investment and new talents.

However, public companies have more responsibilities than private companies in general. In other words, they must communicate with more stakeholders all over the world. Also, Glovo is one of the famous Spanish companies. Thus, it should treat its riders more properly and we look forward to its big decision in the next year.