Technology start-up Deliverect plans Middle East expansion after $65m funding

Founded in 2018 in Ghent, the company simplifies online food delivery management

Zhong Xu (second from right), co-founder and chief executive of Deliverect, with other team members. Courtesy Deliverect

Deliverect, a technology start-up that connects food delivery companies like Deliveroo and Talabat to restaurants through an automated point of sale system, raised $65 million in a funding round to expand into international markets, including the Middle East.

Venture capital firms DST Global Partners and Redpoint Ventures led the fundraising that also saw the participation of the company’s existing investors and its co-founders.

Founded in Ghent, Belgium, in September 2018, Deliverect will use the new funds to “continue scaling and helping customers to go online even faster” by providing them technology to manage digital orders and apps related to delivery and in-house dining, it said.

They will be used to support further research and development and product development, the company said.

The new funds will fuel the firm’s commitment to offer “personalised technology” to restaurants to help them grow through their online sales and delivery channels, Zhong Xu, co-founder and chief executive of Deliverect, said.

In April last year, Deliverect raised $19.8m in a Series B funding round, after which it quadrupled its team to nearly 200 and expanded into new markets including Dubai, Paris, Edinburgh, Mexico City and Amersfoort.

“The hospitality world is in a historical moment of change and digitalisation, and the delivery sector has become crucial for the survival of this industry,” Mr Zhong said.

“Deliverect aims to become the global gateway for online food ordering and delivery, helping restaurants around the world to thrive online. This is a new category and we are proud to say we are the leading solution in the market.”

Deliverect saw a good uptick in the number of its customers amidst the pandemic as most of the restaurants embraced new technologies to facilitate online deliveries. It processed more than 30 million orders in the past year alone. It is now averaging more than one million orders processed per week, an increase of nearly 750 per cent from April last year.

This is estimated to equate to more than $1 billion in order value and provides customers on average an increase of 25 per cent in revenue as well as 80 per cent decrease in order failures, the company said.

"The explosive rise of online food delivery is forcing restaurants to change how they operate. [Mr] Zhong and the Deliverect team are building the tools and infrastructure to help restaurants thrive in a world where navigating online food delivery is a matter of success or failure,” Elliot Geidt, managing director of California-based Redpoint Ventures, said.

Deliverect simplifies online food delivery management. It integrates online orders from different food delivery channels, such as Talabat, Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Zomato, in one channel.

Working with cloud and dark kitchens and restaurant chains, it supports more than 10,000 companies, in over 30 markets around the world, including brands such as Pret a Manger, Taco Bell, TimeOut Markets, Taqueria, Le Pain Quotidien and Dishoom.

The platform eliminates the need for restaurant staff to monitor multiple devices and manually re-enter orders into their existing system, therefore dramatically reducing both staff workload and the probability of errors.

“We are excited to partner with the Deliverect team as they continue to roll out their technology globally and further develop their product offering,” Tom Stafford, managing partner of London-based DST Global Partners, said.