Oscar Pierre’s Glovo announces $60-million Africa expansion plan

Barcelona-based courier service provider Glovo has announced plans to accelerate its Africa operations in the coming months.

TechCrunch reported the company’s intention to invest €50 million ($60 million) to expand into more cities in Africa, including Morocco, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria, with a planned launch in Tunis, Tunisia’s capital, next month.

The company has already invested €25 million ($30 million) in its existing African operations.

Glovo is a Spanish on-demand start-up co-founded by Oscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud in 2015. The startup offers multiple services with food delivery being the most popular offering.

Commenting, Michaud, Glovo co-founder and vice president of public affairs, said the startup has found the right opportunity to work with local restaurants, bringing them online to reach new customers in a bid to “make everything, within all towns and cities, available to everyone.”

With a presence in more than 40 cities in 23 countries, Africa accounts for just 30 percent of the company’s geographical footprint.

According to Glovo, it has 89,000 registered restaurants and 58,000 active couriers. It is on a mission to make cities more accessible by transforming the way users buy and receive what they need in due time.

Although the startup boasts over 3.8 million customers globally, it says that the latest expansion move will make its services available to 6.5 million people. Following questions over profitability in the thin-margin delivery space, Glovo sold its Latin America operations to Delivery Hero, which were bought for $272 million, exiting Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.