Deliveroo makes annual profit for first time
Deliveroo has made an annual profit for the first time, after a bumpy few years since a disastrous stock market listing that earned the takeaway delivery company the nickname “flopperoo”.The 12-year-old company, a member of the FTSE 250 index of mid-sized companies, made a profit of £3m in 2024, compared with a loss of £32m in 2023, it said in a statement on Thursday.The profit came alongside its first year of cash generation, after years of losing hundreds of millions of pounds as the company expanded from a startup to becoming a rare technology company to float on the London Stock Exchange in 2021.Deliveroo said the annual profit came despite an “uncertain consumer environment”, as it pushed beyond takeaways to grocery deliveries, which accounted for 16% of sales in the second half of the year.Its share price fell 8% after analysts flagged “soft” expectations for future profits.
It also added companies such as Ann Summers, B&Q, The Perfume Shop and Not On The High Street to its shopping ranges as it continued to expand its range beyond food.However, it may be years before investors receive a return.Deliveroo has so far raised about £1bn from venture capital investors, plus another £1bn in its initial public offering.The company also faces stiff competition, including in the UK from Uber Eats and Just Eat Takeaway, whose new owner, the well-funded South African tech investor Prosus, wants to expand.The total value of orders through Deliveroo’s app and website rose 5% to £7.
4bn, giving it revenues of £2.1bn.The company’s main markets are Britain and Ireland, with a presence in another eight countries amid still tough competition.Will Shu founded the company in 2013 with his childhood friend Greg Orlowski, after working long hours as an investment banker in London and despairing at the lack of choice for evening food deliveries to the office.Orlowski quit in 2016.
Deliveroo attracted hundreds of millions of pounds of venture capital investment in the years that followed, with investors attracted by the idea of a technology platform that could quickly expand.Deliveroo’s shares floated in 2021 at a market value of £7.6bn, when the valuation of food delivery companies had soared because of coronavirus pandemic lockdowns.The company initially suffered a difficult float that experienced an immediate slump of 26% in its share price, the worst debut in London’s history.The stock recovered to peak at £3.
80 later in 2021 as the pandemic fuelled a boom in delivery company shares, but fell to less than 80p in August 2022 as the boom eased.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionDeliveroo also faced significant scrutiny over the conditions for the gig workers who made deliveries.In 2023 it successfully argued that its workers were self-employed, a system that allows it to avoid certain costs of full employment.In recent years, Deliveroo has sought to become profitable as investor patience wore thin.That helped to raise its share price to more than £1.
60 in September, although it is down 12% this year,The push towards profitability has also led to it leaving markets where it was struggling, including an announcement this week that it would leave Hong Kong, after being muscled out by a Chinese competitor,Shu said: “The robust results we’ve announced today, with our first full-year profit and positive free cashflow as well as gross transaction volume growth across our verticals, demonstrate that our strategy is working,”Susannah Streeter, the head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “It’s been a long hard slog but Deliveroo has finally climbed the tough summit of reaching annual profitability … Growth is already highly sluggish in the UK, and there are concerns that the harsh global trade winds blowing could knock recovery off course,”
Apple to appeal against UK government data demand at secret high court hearing
Apple’s appeal against a UK government demand to access its customers’ highly encrypted data will be the subject of a secret high court hearing, the Guardian understands.The appeal on Friday will be considered by the investigatory powers tribunal, an independent court that has the power to investigate claims that the UK intelligence services have acted unlawfully.It is against an order served by the Home Office in February under the Investigatory Powers Act, which compels companies to provide information to law enforcement agencies.The Home Office asked for the right to see users’ encrypted data in the event of a national security risk. Currently, not even Apple can access data and documents protected by its advanced data protection (ADP) programme
ChatGPT firm reveals AI model that is ‘good at creative writing’
The company behind ChatGPT has revealed it has developed an artificial intelligence model that is “good at creative writing”, as the tech sector continues its tussle with the creative industries over copyright.The chief executive of OpenAI, Sam Altman, said the unnamed model, which has not been released publicly, was the first time he had been “really struck” by the written output of one of the startup’s products.In a post on the social media platform X, Altman wrote: “We trained a new model that is good at creative writing (not sure yet how/when it will get released). This is the first time i have been really struck by something written by AI.”AI systems such as ChatGPT are the subject of a running legal battle between AI companies and the creative industries because their underlying models are “trained” on reams of publicly available data, including copyright-protected material such as novels and journalism
iPhone 16e review: Apple’s cheapest new phone
Apple’s cheapest new smartphone is the iPhone 16e, which offers the basic modern iPhone experience including the latest chips and AI features but for a little less than its other models.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The iPhone 16e costs £599 (€699/$599/A$999) and is the spiritual successor to the iPhone SE line
Elon Musk claims ‘massive cyber-attack’ caused X outages
Elon Musk claimed on Monday afternoon that X was targeted in a “massive cyber-attack” that resulted in the intermittent service outages that had brought down his social network throughout the day. The platform, formerly known as Twitter, had been unresponsive for many users as posts failed to load.“We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources,” the platform’s CEO posted. “Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved.”Downdetector, a website that monitors outages on various sites and platforms, showed thousands of reports of outages that initially spiked at about 5
The making of Elon Musk: how did his childhood in apartheid South Africa shape him?
The billionaire and now Trump adviser grew up amid the collapse of white rule, attending an all-white school and then a more liberal oneWith an imposing double-winged redbrick main building, and school songs lifted directly from Harrow’s songbook, Pretoria boys high school is every inch the South African mirror of the English private schools it was founded in 1901 to imitate.Elon Musk, who has rapidly become one of the most powerful people in US politics, spent his final school years in the 1980s as a day pupil on the lush, tree-filled campus in South Africa’s capital, close to his father’s large detached home in Waterkloof, a wealthy Pretoria suburb shaded by purple jacaranda blossoms in spring.South Africa was rocked by uprisings as apartheid entered its dying years. In 1984, black townships across the country revolted. By 1986, the white minority government had imposed a state of emergency
Skype shutdown surfaces sweet memories: ‘I proposed marriage’
Microsoft announced on the last day of February that it would sunset Skype. By the time the death knell tolled, the video chatting software that once revolutionized communications had become a ghost of its former self. Experts chimed in with half-hearted eulogies for the platform that Microsoft spent years neglecting, yet few were surprised, and even fewer shed tears.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link
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