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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Latin America

Delivery Hero Acquires Glovo’s Latin America Operations

Berlin, Germany-based Delivery Hero announced today it has acquired fellow third-party delivery service Glovo’s Latin American operations for €230 million (~$272M USD). The transaction is expected to close in the next few weeks, according to a press release from Delivery Hero.

The deal covers all Latin American countries in which Glovo operates: There is some overlap here, as Delivery Hero already has operations in Argentina, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. Acquiring Glovo obviously means Delivery Hero will widen its reach in Latin America considerably. 

Any delivery service aiming to enter or expand in the Latin America market will need to ensure they offer affordable options for restaurants. By some accounts, roughly 96 percent of independent restaurants in Latin America are not even online right now, and restaurant tech is far less developed than in, say, the U.S. and Europe. Even so, the Latin American market is the fastest-growing one outside the Asia-Pacific region.

Delivery Hero CEO Niklas Östberg said in today’s press release that Latin America “is a region with exceptional growth potential for online delivery.” 

The acquisition also means more consolidation for the Latin America food delivery sector. Glovo actually exited two Latin American markets earlier this year. Meanwhile, iFood and Domicillios.com merged in April and together compete with the other major player, Softbank-backed Rappi.

Delivery Hero’s last big acquisition was at the end of 2019 when the company bought its South Korean food delivery rival, Woowa Bros.’ Baedal Minjok service, for $4 billion. Prior to that, it had acquired InstaShop, an online grocery marketplace with operations in the Middle East and North Africa. Delivery Hero now operates in 44 countries worldwide.

Glovo will continue to operate its Latin America markets until March 2021, at which point, pending regulatory approval, they will become a part of Delivery Hero’s network.

Popapp Data Gives Snapshot of COVID-19’s Impact on Latin American Restaurants

Because we are based in the US, we have plenty of data about how the COVID-19 outbreak is decimating the restaurant business here. And while we have a general sense about how restaurants are faring in other parts of the world (bad), we haven’t seen a lot of numbers.

But thanks to Jorge Corona Gutierrez, we have a small glimpse into the impact of the global pandemic across Latin America countries like Argentina, Chile, Perú and Mexico.

Gutierrez is the Founder and CEO of Popapp, a restaurant software startup that helps manage delivery for small to medium-sized restaurants. He pulled together data from Popapp’s 300 customers to provide a snapshot of how COVID-19 has impacted the restaurant business across Latin America. From that report, Gutierrez says:

  • As of March 1 of this year, Popapp had 336 active point of sale (POS) per day. By April 6, that number had dropped to 59 active POS per day, representing an 82 percent churn.
  • During the first week of March, the average cumulative sales per day of Popapp’s customers was roughly $117,000 (USD) per day. During the first week of April, that number dropped to $25,000, an 84 percent loss in revenue.

Obviously this is a small snapshot of the overall state of the restaurant industry in Latin America, but it does give us some numbers to get a sense of the problems there.

Even amidst this gloom, however, Gutierrez points out some optimism. That 59 active POS number above is actually an improvement over the nadir for the company over the past month, when there were just 43 active POS systems per day. And Gutierrez says that his company has been steadily adding more customers suggesting that more restaurants are pivoting to delivery.

The data from Gutierrez’s report does illustrate that this is a truly global pandemic that is hitting the restaurant industry particularly hard around the world.

Walmart Acquires Cornershop, While Jet.com Gets in a New York State of Mind

Walmart announced yesterday that it is expanding its digital presence in Latin America with the $225 million acquisition of Cornershop, an online marketplace for on-demand delivery from supermarkets in Mexico and Chile. While that move continued the retail giant’s global spending spree, domestically, the company’s subsidiary Jet.com unveiled a revamped website featuring enhanced grocery delivery options in New York City.

Walmart’s purchase of Cornershop is the latest international acquisition for the company. In just this year Walmart has:

Rather than going head-on in its battle with rival, Amazon, Walmart seems to be going around and flanking it, shoring up e-commerce and digital resources around the world.

That’s not to say Walmart has given up its fight against Amazon here in the U.S. Yesterday also saw Walmart company Jet.com launch a revamped website with a new grocery shopping service catering specifically to New York City dwellers.

As part of its pitch to the Empire City, Jet.com is offering products from iconic local businesses there such as Bedford Cheese Shop, Orwashers Bakery and Just Bagels. Customers will also be able to purchase high-end craft beer for delivery.

The delivery itself is also getting an overhaul with next-day and three-hour schedule delivery windows for groceries and more. Delivery will be powered by Parcel, which Walmart acquired last year.

Obviously Walmart/Jet isn’t going to stop at New York City. Look for this type of local-and-fast e-commerce experience to scale out nationwide. Walmart is already putting those pieces together with the recent launch of its Spark Delivery service. Between the logistics data and experience it gets from Parcel, and the local purchase and delivery data Spark will provide, Walmart and Jet will be able to better target customers in different regions around the country.

And with its push into foreign markets, it won’t be too long before it will do it around the world.