William Shu Wants You To Order From Deliveroo Twice A Day

Shortly after raising $100 million, Deliveroo co-founder and CEO William Shu and Accel Partners’ Fred Destin took the stage at Disrupt London to discuss the company’s ambitious plans.

“We started with two restaurants in Chelsea with two drivers — I was the first driver,” Shu said. “And now, it’s not about using us twice a month, it’s about using it every single day. Your best restaurant in your local neighborhood is here in less than half an hour.”

Deliveroo operates its own fleet of delivery persons and partners with local restaurants. With Deliveroo, you can find your favorite local restaurant and order food from them. They don’t have to buy scooters, and you know the delivery will be quick.

It sounds too simple, but the company has raised around $200 million so far and is slowly but surely taking over major cities — and there’s still a lot of room to grow.

“[The market] is way bigger than anybody realizes,” Destin said. “Delivery is a market expansion play. We have very little overlap with Just Eat when it comes to restaurants and customers.”

But it also means that Deliveroo has to grow as quickly as possible to capture as much of the market as possible. And the good thing is that the company still has a lot of money in the bank. “I view us as the potential acquirer of other businesses,” Shu said. “We haven’t seen anything interesting. It’s still really early days right now in this industry. We need to see a bit more what’s going to happen. Right now, we’re just focused on being the best food delivery startup in the world.”

When it comes to geographical expansions, Deliveroo started in the U.K. and is now available in dozens of cities. In Paris, Deliveroo had to face some local competition, but Destin said that Deliveroo is now No. 1 in Paris. “Pretty much every market we’re launching is faster than the previous one,” Destin said. And the company is also available in many other countries.

There’s also the drone question. Would it be crazy for Deliveroo to switch to drones? While Shu admitted that he hasn’t thought about it, drones could be useful in some very specific cases. “I do think it can work in suburban areas. I think in urban areas it’s still going to be tough,” he said.

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