Just-Eat cooks up Europe expansion on back of £10.5m funding

LONDON - Just-Eat, the European site for ordering meals online, has raised 拢10.5m in its first institutional round of financing.

The capital will be used to consolidate the company's position in the UK and to expand into additional territories across Europe.

Index Ventures led the financing with Venrex Investment Management and existing shareholders also taking part.

Klaus Nyengaard, Just-Eat CEO, said: "Our mission is to give people around the world an easy, fast, and dependable way to order takeaway food online from their favourite neighbourhood restaurants.

"We provide a convenient way to find takeaway restaurants, read reviews, look at menus, order meals online instead of over the phone, and have them conveniently delivered to your home.

"This new round of funding will help us further expand our restaurant network and continue to provide the best possible choice and service to our customers."

Just-Eat, which was founded in Denmark in 2001, allows customers to order their takeaways online and be connected directly to the kitchens of every restaurant in the Just Eat network, which includes 6,000 in all and 3,000 in the UK alone.

On ordering consumers receive an instant confirmation that their order has been received and an estimated delivery time..

Ben Holmes, partner at Index Ventures, said: "The home delivery market is growing at 9% per year and it has proved to be a profitable business even in recessionary periods.

"Just-Eat clearly has the best technology and processes in the industry as well as a strong team and proven traction among consumers and restaurants."

The majority of the Just-Eat network restaurants are local, independently run businesses in UK, Ireland, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and Sweden. Norway will join the scheme next with other markets set to follow.