
Glovo celebrates 10 years: from Barcelona-born startup to leading tech platform
Technology company Glovo celebrates its 10th anniversary. Founded in Barcelona in 2015, what started as a local startup with a small team of six people, has transformed into one of the leading tech platforms in Southern Europe.
Glovo has already surpassed one billion orders since its founding and has always been at the forefront of Q-Commerce, the next evolution of e-commerce. Now part of the Delivery Hero group, Glovo is creating the biggest marketplace in the cities it operates, having millions of users and a strong presence in 23 markets and 1,800 cities across Europe, Africa, and Central Asia, and more than 3,000 employees worldwide.
"Over the past decade, we’ve transformed what once seemed like a dream – customers having everything at their fingertips, delivered in minutes – into not only a reality but a daily habit and a basic need for millions of people. With more than one billion orders processed through our platform, we are just at the beginning of unlocking its full potential to redefine convenience and everyday living for the next decade," said Oscar Pierre, CEO and Co-Founder of Glovo.
A decade of changing consumer habits
Founded in 2015, Glovo has helped people access food, groceries, and everyday essentials, observing changes in urban lifestyles. Ordering habits have expanded beyond the traditional dinner occasion. The proportion of breakfast and lunch orders has risen steadily, while afternoon snack orders have nearly doubled. Delivery, once an occasional weekend treat mostly confined to pizza chains, has now become a part of daily life, with Glovo transforming habits over the years.
No longer limited to weekend meals, food delivery is now an everyday reality with orders spread throughout the day during the whole week. This evolution underscores the modern expectation for food and goods on demand, whenever it's wanted, often 24/7. On food, American, Italian, and Asian cuisines have consistently remained people’s favourites, but in recent years, there has been a growing appetite for local flavours. Demand for Spanish, Ukrainian, Arabic, Georgian, African, or Mediterranean cuisines has grown tenfold over the past five years.
Shaping the future of e-commerce through Q-Commerce
Multicategory since day one, Glovo bet on Q-Commerce, the next generation of e-commerce that allows people to shop for groceries and retail items and receive them in under 30 minutes. Today, Glovo’s Q-Commerce business generates over €1 billion in yearly turnover, with both grocery and retail categories growing by approximately 50% in 2024.
"Q-Commerce remains at the heart of our vision to transform how people access anything in their cities, and we keep working on faster, easier, and more personalised experiences for our customers. By digitising groceries and scaling and diversifying our retail offering, we’re building the largest online marketplaces in urban areas," added Pierre.
The Glovo ecosystem: empowering and digitalising local businesses
Over the past 10 years, local businesses have generated more than €18.5 billion in additional revenue by partnering with Glovo. Within Glovo’s network, over 90% of the 150,000 businesses on Glovo are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who now report that digital platforms contribute an average of 25% of their total revenue.
“Glovo has been a key partner in VICIO’s growth since day one. They were the first to believe in our project when everything was just starting, and today, ten years later, we’re still building together. Thanks to their continued commitment and an agile, efficient operation, we’ve been able to take VICIO to the next level, now reaching over 12 cities with more than 30 locations. This partnership has been essential in making our concept shine in many corners of the country. Congratulations to the entire Glovo team on these 10 years of innovation, dedication, and success.”, said Oriol de Pablo, cofounder and CEO of VICIO. VICIO is Spain and Portugal’s fastest-growing hamburger chain, starting as a virtual kitchen, moving to brick-and-mortar locations after building an online brand.
Through Glovo Local, Glovo supports these businesses with tailored solutions, access to funding at better rates, training through Glovo Academy sessions, and initiatives like the SME Booster campaign, designed to increase online visibility for small partners with strong growth potential. Over the past decade, many local hero partners have emerged through Glovo’s platform, as Glovo aims to be their preferred digital ally.
Also, Glovo is transforming how consumers engage with their favourite brands as more than 500 brands are already utilising Glovo as a retail media platform to engage with their audience and achieve high rates of Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).
Two heroes together
Glovo became part of the Delivery Hero group in 2022. Glovo’s strong presence in Southern Europe and the EEMEA region complemented Delivery Hero’s global footprint, which now encompasses almost 70 countries and reaches up to 2.2 billion people across four continents. Sharing technology and expertise as part of the Delivery Hero Group has enabled Glovo to further improve the experience for customers, partners, riders, and brands across all markets. Since the acquisition by Delivery Hero, Glovo has more than doubled in size.
Glovo positive footprint
Since 2015, the dedication and hard work of riders using the Glovo platform have been important for the success of Glovo’s marketplace, enabling them to collectively earn over €3.1 billion. Recognising their vital contribution, Glovo launched The Couriers Pledge in 2021 – a commitment that has since evolved into Glovo+. This loyalty program underscores the company’s belief in supporting riders by providing them with a wide array of benefits, from enhanced insurance and educational opportunities to valuable economic bonuses.
Glovo firmly believes that positive impact and sustainability must be integral to the core business. Glovo’s commitment is not only to increase the positive contributions but also to actively reduce any negative impacts generated through the operations. This conviction led to the creation of Glovo’s Impact Fund. Designed to grow directly in proportion to business growth, with a portion of every order funding social and environmental initiatives. Impact Fund empowers programs like Glovo Access.
In 2024 alone, Glovo Access enabled NGOs and Food Banks to leverage Glovo’s technology and enable social entities to distribute over 7.5 million social meals, doubling its reach from 2023 and reaching a total of 16 million social meals since its 2020 launch. Glovo’s commitment is to scale Glovo Access further, aiming for NGOs to distribute 14 million social meals this year in 2025. Furthermore, the Impact Fund supports crucial projects focused on CO2 reduction, fleet electrification, and Glovo Local, our initiative to foster SME digitalisation. These efforts underscore the long-term commitment to sustainability and empowering the communities Glovo serves.
"Reflecting on our first decade, Glovo has intentionally built a tech ecosystem that not only powers local economies – fostering the growth of small businesses, providing flexible earning opportunities for riders, and connecting millions to essential services – but also embodies a fundamental belief: modern companies must be both financially sustainable and generate a positive impact on society,” emphasises Sacha Michaud, Glovo’s co-founder and VP of Global Affairs. “Our belief is that our business success will be driven by creating real value for communities, driving long-term impact, and building more inclusive and sustainable urban living.”
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