Oscar Pierre, Glovo CEO & Founder: Selling 30% for €100K |The McDonald's Deal That Saved Them |E1263

Glovo CEO Oscar Pierre on selling 30% for €100K, the McDonald’s deal that saved the company, and building a €2.3B exit while facing criminal charges in Spain.

• Glovo’s pre-seed valued the company at €280K pre-money; raised €100K for roughly 35% of the company.
• McDonald’s exclusivity deal in Spain in 2018 was existential — losing it to Uber Eats would have shut Glovo down.
• Raised every 9 months for 7 years, burning up to €1M/day, nearly ran out of cash at least 3 times.
• A chance meeting with Rakuten founder Mickey Mikitani at an FC Barcelona event unlocked a €15M rescue round.
• Brazil was a €30–40M write-off; iFood had locked up all restaurant supply and customers wouldn’t switch without unsustainable vouchers.
• Spanish prosecutor charged Oscar Pierre with up to 6 years in prison for using a freelancer courier model — a model upheld by Spanish courts 14 times.
• Glovo’s first profitable semester came in year 10; advertising revenue sits at 2–3% of GMV with a target of 5%, nearly all-margin.
• Spanish online grocery penetration is 2% of a €120B market; Glovo sees it going to 20–30% and aims to capture half.

2025-02-26 · Watch on YouTube