Lior Eshkol, CEO of Wolt’s Israel branch, said in a statement that grocery shopping will become “much more immediate and much more frequent, instead of the big weekly shopping. Wolt has raised $850 million in funding to date from investors such as ICONIQ, Tiger Global, KKR, DST, EQT, 83North and Goldman Sachs. The delivery service became active in Israel in 2018 and now operates in 23 Israeli cities with a network of more than 2,500 restaurants, convenience stores, and supermarkets, among other businesses. It will also sell a range of local products to make good on the demand for organic foods.įounded in 2014 in Helsinki, Finland, Wolt is a food and goods delivery service used in 23 countries and more than 200 cities, with upwards of 50,000 total affiliated restaurants and stores. Wolt Market’s inventory totals approximately 3,000 products including all grocery store staples such as dairy products, fresh produce, meat, breads and pastries, frozen food, soft beverages and alcohol, as well as hygiene and baby products.
At this time, the store will only service customers in the central Tel Aviv area. However, Wolt will offer a pick-up option at the store.
Iconiq was joined by Tiger Global, Goldman Sachs Growth Equity and more than a half-dozen other institutional investors.Wolt Market will strictly service delivery requests, and customers will not be allowed to physically shop for groceries inside the store. Enter a new chapter and find a job at Wolt Apply now. Serve more people as a restaurant partner Apply now. Hungry for more than food Get paid as a courier partner Apply now. The round Wolt announced today was led by Iconiq Growth. When you order with Wolt, you help thousands of hard-working restaurant and store owners and couriers make a living. The startup reportedly started preparing for an initial public offering after its previous $100 million round last year and is now looking to hire a chief financial officer to oversee the effort. DoorDash, for instance, disclosed in the paperwork for its initial public offering last year that it was experimenting with drone delivery.Ī stock market listing is on Wolt’s roadmap as well. The extra funding should also allow Wolt to expand its engineering operations as rivals invest in new technologies to differentiate their services. The startup is both partnering with established grocery store chains and setting up its own “dark stores,” retail locations focused specifically on online orders.
Wolt’s long-term plans include expanding to other areas besides the restaurant segment, most notably grocery delivery. Wolt Chief Executive Miki Kuusi said in a statement today that “we operate in an extremely competitive and well-funded industry, and this round allows us to have a long-term mindset when it comes to doubling down on our different markets.” One of the highest-profile examples is Uber, whose Eats unit in August reported higher revenue than its ride-hailing business for the first time. Several of Wolt’s rivals also saw delivery orders surge in 2020 thanks to demand from consumers opting to do their shopping online during the pandemic. īesides DoorDash, Wolt competes with Uber Inc.’s Uber Eats unit, GrubHub Inc. That’s a comparatively small loss for a startup competing in the highly competitive food delivery market, where much larger players have struggled to achieve profitability. Wolt disclosed today that it closed 2020 just $38 million in the red. Wolt says that its revenues tripled in 2020 on a year-over-year basis, to about $330 million.Īnother detail that likely caught investors’ attention is that the startup has managed to limit losses despite its rapid top-line growth. The startup claims more than 10 million users in 23 countries to whom it delivers restaurant orders with the help of more than 50,000 couriers. but has a substantial presence in the food delivery market. Wolt isn’t as well-known as rivals such as publicly traded Deliveroo Inc. Helsinki, Finland-based food delivery startup Wolt Enterprises Oy today announced that it has raised an additional $530 million from investors, less than a year after closing its previous $100 million funding round.