Deliveroo CFO departs before funding round investigation

Dive Brief:

CFO Raif Jacobs is the latest executive to depart London-based food delivery startup Deliveroo as it attracts interest both from Amazon and Uber as well as scrutiny from the U.K.'s competition regulator, Bloomberg reported.
Jacobs joined Deliveroo in 2018, following nearly 15 years heading finance in Google’s European offices. He departed Deliveroo about two months ago, a company spokesman told Bloomberg in an emailed statement.
Jacobs’ departure follows a larger string of executives leaving Deliveroo; amid a separate c-suite shuffle in January, the company lost its chief operating officer, chief technology officer, chief people officer, and chief legal officer, Business Insider said.

Dive Insight:

Jacobs left Deliveroo shortly before the U.K. competition regulator opened an investigation into Amazon’s bid to buy a stake in Roofoods, a Deliveroo business, Bloomberg reported.

Deliveroo did not issue a statement regarding Jacobs' departure, though a spokesperson later told a local British news outlet, "Raif no longer works at Deliveroo, having left the business in early October. We of course are very grateful to him for his work and wish him well.”

Hadi Moussa, a former Airbnb executive, has been named chief officer of all Deliveroo business outside of the U.K., Bloomberg reported. Additionally, Deliveroo’s new head of engineering arrived from Facebook, and a new vice president came from Restaurant Brands International.

In recent years, the startup has formed a relationship with Amazon, Bloomberg said, the latter of which claims it led a $575 million funding round to help Deliveroo expand its tech team and network, after Amazon shuttered its own London food-delivery business in 2018.

But despite its rapid growth over its nearly seven years of operation (including a 117% revenue jump in 2017), Deliveroo remains unprofitable, with a reported pre-tax loss of $241 million, Business Insider reported. Though Uber, owner of rival delivery service UberEATS, has been aiming to acquire Deliveroo, Shu is “very unlikely to sell,” Business Insider said, which has led to speculation that the company will float, or raise more money through a Series C capital raise.

Deliveroo has yet to name Jacobs’ successor, but will likely look to the incoming CFO for assistance in fielding acquisition offers (Amazon and Uber are reportedly making large bids), as well as helping the company turn a pre-tax profit by 2021.