European on-demand delivery startup Glovo returns to Egypt, resumes services in Cairo

In a dramatic chain of events, the European on-demand delivery startup that had announced its exit from Egypt a few weeks ago has returned to the country by launching its services in some areas of Cairo, MENAbytes has learned.

Glovo has not made any public announcement but we’ve tried the app (without having anything delivered) and it seems to be working fine in the areas shown below in the map (highlighted zone).

This follows the chatter on social media for more than a week with many Glovo delivery partners saying that they had been receiving messages from the Spanish company about its return to Cairo (and beyond) by launching in new areas every week.

According to the information shared on social media, Glovo that has launched today in some areas is expected to roll out its services in some more areas including Maadi and Heliopolis during the next few weeks before expanding (again) to Alexandria towards the end of next month.

Glovo is returning to Egypt almost two weeks after Egyptian competition watchdog ordered it to resume its operations in the country. The Egyptian Competition Authority or ECA had accused Glovo and Delivery Hero (who had invested in Glovo in July last year) of engaging in anti-competitive practices by signing a market allocation agreement (an agreement used by competitors to divide markets and customers) that resulted in Glovo’s exit from Egypt.

Glovo even though had announced its exit (very privately as it was announced to delivery partners only without any general announcement) from Egypt, the company was still in the process of liquidating its business in the country. ECA, per statement released by them late last month, told Glovo not to proceed with the liquidation process.

When the startup had shut down its operations in Egypt, its app redirected users to Otlob, the Egyptian food delivery app owned and run by Delivery Hero.

MENAbytes understands that a large number of Glovo’s staff including the executives who were leading the company in Egypt have moved to new jobs with some rejoining the Spanish company. We could not confirm but apparently Glovo’s operations are now being led by someone from Barcelona office who’s on the ground (in Cairo) but hasn’t worked in Egypt previously.

We’re trying to learn the details and will update the story (or maybe publish another one) once we have more.