Glovo celebrates 10 years of survival and opens a new chapter without false freelancers.

BarcelonaGlovo, the home delivery platform, celebrated its 10th anniversary this Monday amid congratulations from governments and businesses, but also with its eyes on the courts. The trial for the lawsuit filed by Just Eat for alleged unfair competition by the Catalan company will take place from Tuesday to Friday. According to Glovo co-founder Òscar Pierre, at an event held at its headquarters in Poblenou, these ten years mark a change of era for the company, which began as a start-up technological and now, he says, "it's time to stop being less entrepreneurial and become more business people."

This new stage will begin with the long-awaited regularization of its workforce of riders: "As of July 1st, we will have our entire fleet of workers under an employment contract in Spain," Pierre assured. "This change in model is unprecedented; no other platform has made such a significant change in such a short time, but we are happy to open a new chapter and ensure there is no conflict," he celebrated.

The end of the false self-employment model earned the main congratulations from the President of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, who closed the event: "For us, this step in labor regulation by Glovo is very important," Illa said. "We want companies like Glovo in Barcelona, ​​​​but we also want them to adapt their system to the regulations. In fact, that's why I came here today, because a new era is opening that makes the Glovo model suitable for the regulations of our country possible," he emphasized. And he concluded with "Congratulations and always by your side."

The staging of this "new stage" for Glovo was clear: representatives from business, government and the entrepreneurial world attended, as well as from the trade union world, such as Pepe Álvarez (UGT) and Javier Pacheco (CCOO), in a show of support for the company's shift towards the labour model.

The president of Fomento del Trabajo, Josep Sánchez Llibre, also redoubled his support for Glovo by opening the event: "One of the positive aspects of the return of political and economic stability to Catalonia is that the business resurgence is a reality. This is a significant event. Glovo's ten years. "For Fomento, Glovo represents a new model of Catalan business success: a model of technological success, innovation and internationalisation, a disruptive and resilient model; It is probably one of the most important unicorns in the EU and has demonstrated to Catalan, Spanish, and international society that it is capable of competing in this business model with Silicon Valley, Paris, and Amsterdam," he added.

Ten years of "survival"

The two founders of the delivery giant, Òscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud, have reviewed the ten years of Glovo, which started by doing deliveries themselves and now operates in 23 countries and is owned by the German company Delivery Hero. "It hasn't been easy to get here. We've been on the verge of closing on several occasions due to lack of capital, we've had to close divisions and lay off very valuable people, we've had to leave countries, but we're here and we're still in Barcelona," Michaud proclaimed.

For his part, Pierre explained the company's beginnings and reviewed the difficult times, but he celebrated having reached where they are now: "It's been ten years of survival, but now the company is more stable and we can look to the longer term. We're excited to continue building from Barcelona." In this sense, Michaud added that "Barcelona is now much better off as a benchmark city for the creation of technological innovation companies: companies like Factorial, TravelPerk, Wallapop, and others are building the brand of this city, and Glovo wants to do the same; we are still at the beginning of this path," he said.

Objective: to conquer the 'top 10'

"I was recently given some advice," Pierre explained, "that I want to share with you. They told me, 'With Glovo's size, you should stop being an entrepreneur and become more of a business owner.' Today's event is about that," Pierre concluded. In fact, Glovo's goal is clear: to become part of the top 10 Spanish companies in ten years. "In ten years, we'll invite them again, and you'll see tech companies appear on the list, and Glovo will be there," Pierre promised.

"Glovo revolutionized online commerce, and now we believe the next revolution in commerce will be the quick commerce", Pierre said. "We're heading this way," he remarked. quick commerce It's a type of e-commerce that relies on speed—deliveries between 10 and 30 minutes—and goes beyond catering: grocery shopping, a gift, a very specific order, etc. Pierre focused primarily on the potential of home delivery from supermarkets, since in Spain "only 2.5%" of delivery is done online. A practice, he indicated, that in France or the United Kingdom is 15% or 20%. According to figures detailed by the company, this model already accounts for 20% of Glovo's revenue, and "it's one of the fastest-growing branches," the CEO explained.

Currently, Glovo employs 245,000 delivery drivers and 3,000 office staff (half at Yellow Park, its Barcelona headquarters, and the other half in the countries where it operates). The app delivers an average of 13 orders per second worldwide, and up to 30 million people have used the platform in the last 12 months, reaching its billionth order by December 2024. Glovo has reached $20 billion in revenue over these ten years. In Catalonia, it operates in 44 cities, and in the last year, 1.5 million people living there have used the platform. Across Spain, it operates in 900 towns and cities with more than 6.6 million users.