History
Five Danish entrepreneurs, including Jesper Buch, founded Just Eat in Denmark and launched the service in August 2001. The company started with 15 employees. In 2005 the technology entrepreneur Bo Bendtsen (co-founder) bought out all the founders and initial investors apart from Jesper Buch and moved the company to the UK. Buch moved to the UK as part of the buyout in 2006, and hired Welsh executive David Buttress to join as CEO and co-founder of Just Eat UK in March. The international expansion from the UK headquarters, starting with the Netherlands, launched in July 2007 and was followed by Ireland in April 2008.
In January 2011, Just Eat established a joint venture in India. In February, the Group raised £30m (US$48m) from their Series B investment.
The money was used to finance:
Four partnerships in new countries with local operators: Eat.ch in Switzerland in April, ClickEat in Italy in May, RestauranteWeb in Brazil in June and Alloresto in France in December;
Three acquisitions to solidify its presence in the UK (Urbanbite to get into the corporate market) and Canada (YummyWeb purchased in April to cover the region of Vancouver and GrubCanada in October for the Ontario and British Columbia markets).
In April 2012, Just Eat acquired fillmybelly.com. A week later, Just Eat announced its £40 (US$64) million Series C funding round. The funds were partly used to launch the Don't Cook rebranding campaign in the UK and to acquire in October its main competitor in Spain, SinDelantal. Also in Spain, the company had previously acquired another delivery business, La Nevera Roja, from the German company Rocket Internet, taking over a large part of the market until the arrival of Uber Eats. After nearly five years at the helm of Just Eat, the group CEO Klaus Nyengaard stepped down in February 2013 and was replaced in May by former UK MD David Buttress.
On 3 April 2014, Just Eat floated on the London Stock Exchange. In July, Just Eat increased its stake in Alloresto to 80%. In September, Just Eat merged its Brazilian business, RestauranteWeb, with one of its competitors, iFood, to form the joint venture IF-JE in which Just Eat had a 25% stake. In February 2015, Just Eat sold to FoodPanda its investments in their Indian JV, and continued its expansion in the Americas by launching in Mexico, via a 100% acquisition of SinDelantal, and increased its stake in IF-JE, the Brazilian JV with iFood.
In May 2015, Just Eat announced that it would buy Menulog, an Australian food ordering company for A$855 million, and would fund the deal by issuing new shares. In July 2015, Just Eat acquired Orderit.ca, a Canadian online food ordering company, further solidifying its presence in Canada. In August 2016, Just Eat sold its operations in the Netherlands and Belgium to its Dutch competitor Takeaway.com for €22.5 million. Whereas Takeaway.com sold its UK operations to Just Eat also in 2016. In December 2016, Just Eat announced that it was acquiring Hungryhouse from Delivery Hero for £200m (with the possibility of a further £40m if the company hit performance targets), and Canada's SkipTheDishes for C$110m (£66m). On 12 October 2017, the Competition and Markets Authority gave its preliminary approval for the deal.
In February 2017, Buttress announced he would be leaving as CEO after four years, due to urgent family matters, continuing to be a non executive director. He later took up a role with Newport, Wales-based rugby union side Dragons as their CEO. His departure was noted by industry commentators as a "significant loss" for the business, with Buttress having been "one of the UK's stand out entrepreneurs of the last decade".
On 29 July 2019, it was announced that Just Eat and Takeaway.com had agreed the terms for a merger of the companies in a deal worth £9bn. On 10 January 2020, 80.4% of Just Eat shareholders approved Takeaway.com's deal to acquire Just Eat plc. Although Just Eat plc became a subsidiary of Takeaway.com on 3 February 2020, the Competition and Markets Authority ordered on 4 February 2020 that no integration should take place and that the brands should be kept separate until their investigation is completed. Just Eat plc was renamed to Just Eat Limited while the investigation took place. At the time of the merger Just Eat had 3,600 employees and 26.3 million customers in 2018. Takeaway.com won over a bid for Just Eat from Prosus.
Just Eat partnered with McDonald's in January 2020 to deliver food in the United Kingdom, ending the monopoly which Uber Eats had previously exercised in the country.
On 22 April 2020, The UK's Competition and Markets Authority announced it was unconditionally approving Just Eat's merger with Takeaway.com, following an investigation.
