Glovo is saying goodbye to the Middle East. Spain headquartered on-demand delivery startup has today announced it’s exiting four markets — which it says is part of a goal of pushing for profitability by 2021.
Throwback ➤ Glovo announces complete operational shutdown in Egypt and Chile
The four markets Glovo is leaving are Egypt, Turkey, Uruguay and Puerto Rico. Worth mentioning that today’s withdrawal marks the 2nd time for Glovo to exit Egypt in less than a year.
Last May, the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) released an official statement and order to Glovo to return to the market, accusing the Spanish startup and recent shareholder Germany’s Delivery Hero for restricting competition in the local market.
Middle East exit
The fast-growing company claims more than 5.5 million unique users and 16,000 associated partners operating in 124 cities across 21 countries, including EEMEA, LATAM, and most recently in Sub Saharian Africa.
Commenting on the exits in a statement, Glovo co-founder and CEO, Oscar Pierre, speaking to TechCrunch : “This has been a very tough decision to take but our strategy has always been to focus on markets where we can grow and establish ourselves among the top two delivery players while providing a first-class user experience and value for our Glovers, customers and partners.”
The exits sum to Glovo withdrawing from eight out of a total 306 cities and indicates shrinking to 22 markets, still with a focus on South America, South West Europe, and Eastern Europe and Africa.
“Leaving these four markets will help us to further strengthen our leadership position in South West and Eastern Europe, LatAm and other African markets, and reach our profitability targets by early 2021,” Pierre added.
What Will You Miss About Glovo?
Glovo is a Spanish start-up founded in Barcelona in January 2015 by Oscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud, The app developed to offer a ‘shop on your behalf’ solution that promises to let you order anything locally on-demand and have it delivered “within minutes”. This includes food items — the company is known for its McDonald’s — and non-takeout food and other deliverables, such as super markets and pharmaceuticals.
While Egypt got a wide range of alternative apps like Uber Eats, Careem NOW and Otlob, Do you think that the Egyptian market will really miss Glovo?
