They’ll also buy you a particular dress in a size 12 from Zara, or grab some painkillers from a pharmacy or a tin of baked beans from a supermarket.

Oscar Pierre, the 20-something founder, now says he wants to go even further, ferrying laundry, cash, packed lunches, tickets and even people to wherever customers want them to go.

The four-year-old startup in 2019 closed a €150m raise, nine months after raising its last round of $134m. It operates in 124 cities across 21 markets (18 of which launched in 2018).

It has also recently opened seven “dark kitchens” in Madrid, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Lima, Milan and Kiev. Local restaurant partners, which have reached peak capacity in their own kitchens, can rent these “Cook Rooms” to produce even more takeaway grub for Glovo’s couriers to carry to customers hungry for more.

And for investors out there, they want even more money. “To be honest, we just closed the round, but next week I’m going to start working on the next one,” Pierre told Sifted in 2019.

Further reading:
Glovo goes big on grocery

Glovo: The everything app

Maxi Mobility, the parent company of Cabify, in 2018 raised $160m from investors including Japan’s Rakuten at a valuation of $1.4bn. In 2016 it was valued at just $320m.

Founder Juan de Antonio, an engineer by training who is mildly famous in Spain for living a frugal life in a modest part of northern Madrid, has been focusing on global expansion and going into other areas of “mobility”.

The company has a business allowing people to rent electric scooters via their mobile phone.

Cabify has, like other ride-hailing startups, come into frequent conflict with established taxi companies (notably in Barcelona in 2019). One big worry for the group is its modest size compared to the global behemoth that is Uber.

The company competes with the likes of eBay, Craigslist, OfferUp and to some extent Facebook in the crowded world of second-hand, locally-focused marketplaces. Founded by Alec Oxenford, Jordi Castello and Enrique Linares in 2015, it’s been fantastically successful, with more than 100m downloads and 400m listings.

It also has a history of acquisitions. In 2016 it merged US operations with Barcelona rival Wallapop and reportedly was looking to merge with Offerup at one point as well.

In 2018 the South African tech giant Naspers invested $500m of new capital into the company, and more deals could be in the works. Other top-flight investors include Accel, Insight Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, 14W, Eight Roads Ventures, Mangrove Capital Partners and FJ Labs. The company’s offices are located in New York and Barcelona.