Deliveroo CEO Will Shu image: RISE on Flickr

U.K. food delivery company Deliveroo has begun holding preliminary discussions for a possible 2021 public listing, according to a report [paywall] from Bloomberg. According to Bloomberg, Deliveroo is in discussions with potential investment banking advisers over the possibility of an initial public offering by next year, notably on the heels of a business boom for food delivery companies due to a coronavirus pandemic that has widely shuttered in-person restaurants. It also comes on the heels of the U.K. antitrust regulator greenlighting a major investment in Deliveroo from US-based e-commerce giant Amazon after previously pausing the deal over antitrust concerns. As a private company, Deliveroo has raised roughly $1.5 billion in funding since its inception. The company was valued at over $2 billion by investors in 2017 but hasn’t disclosed the valuation that came with its most recent financing round in 2019.

Deliveroo, only seven-years-old, has worked its way into the status of the biggest food delivery vendor in the whole of the UK as well as a leading vendor in several other countries. Along the way, the company fielded acquisition talks from Uber, a major US food delivery counterpart. Deliveroo has seen a demand surge following the coronavirus pandemic which widely shuttered in-person shopping and restaurant eating globally including in the UK. 

Deliveroo is one of the most-capitalized and well-known technology upstarts from the UK. Given that, an initial public offering by the company could draw investors from both in and outside the UK. For now, there appear to be talks of a public listing but no formal or certain deal yet reached. 

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