Food Delivery Giants Enter Year Jockeying for Deals and Turf
- Rise of rapid delivery startups increases pressure on leaders
- Pandemic lockdown boost to orders unlikely to continue pace
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With a midnight deadline looming on New Year’s Eve, Germany’s Delivery Hero SE clinched an eleventh-hour deal for a majority stake in Spanish peer Glovo. Two weeks later, it said it would sell down its holding of Latin-American company Rappi. Then on Tuesday it told investors its food-delivery business would break even within months.
The first announcement capped off another year of frenzied activity in the food-delivery sector, during which pandemic lockdowns caused sales to surge and investors to rush into established companies and rapid grocery startups alike.