UK-based food delivery service Deliveroo has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs for an initial public offering that would give e-commerce firm Amazon the chance to exit, Sky News has reported.
The offering is expected to value the company at more than £2bn ($2.6bn) and to take place in 2021, undisclosed insiders told Sky News.
Deliveroo operates an online platform that allows users to order food for delivery from local restaurants. It has experienced a surge in demand over recent months as the coronavirus pandemic led restaurants to close their doors and customers to stay home.
Amazon agreed to lead the company’s last round, a $575m series G announced in May 2019, before the UK’s Competitions and Markets Authority barred its investment two months later due to concerns over Deliveroo’s independence from the corporate.
However, the watchdog reversed course in June this year after Deliveroo claimed it needed the money to avoid financial collapse. Investment and financial services group Fidelity Management and Research, T. Rowe Price and Greenoaks Capital also backed the series G round, which took Deliveroo’s total funding past $1.5bn.
The company had previously closed a $482m series F round in 2017 that was co-led by Fidelity and T. Rowe Price and backed by DST Global, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Accel and unnamed private investors.
Earlier investors in Deliveroo include NGP Capital, the venture capital firm spun off by communications equipment maker Nokia, as well as DST Global, General Catalyst, Greenoaks Capital, Bridgepoint and Hummingbird Ventures.
