Glovo alumni found 35 startups worth EUR €461 million

Glovo alumni found 35 startups worth EUR €461 million

Glovo hosted its fourth Startup Campus at its Barcelona headquarters, where new research linked Glovo alumni to 35 startups with an estimated combined value of €461 million.

The three-day programme brought together 19 startups and 33 founders and team members from 11 countries for mentoring, networking and pitching sessions. Participants came from Germany, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Moldova, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Tunisia and Ukraine.

The findings, presented during the opening session, came from research by Delivery Hero and data platform Dealroom. The analysis found that alumni from Delivery Hero's European brands have founded 150 startups with an estimated combined value of €7.5 billion.

According to the research, that put Delivery Hero ahead of companies including Klarna, Zalando and Spotify by number of spinout founders. Within that broader group, Glovo accounted for 35 founder-led startups valued at an estimated €461 million.

Sacha Michaud, Co-Founder of Glovo, used the event to reflect on the company's early years in Barcelona and the role Startup Campus now plays for newer businesses.

"When we started Glovo in Barcelona in 2015, we had to figure out the startup playbook the hard way; we learnt by doing with little resources. Today, through Startup Campus, we are proud to pay it forward as the local digital ally who brings together exceptional founders from across emerging tech ecosystems to share our learnings, connect them with great mentors and investors, and help them build resilient businesses that can scale globally," said Michaud.

The programme focused on practical support for early-stage companies. Founders took part in masterclasses, workshops and feedback sessions, then met venture capital investors and industry specialists for pitch presentations at the end of the campus.

Glovo founders Oscar Pierre and Michaud were among the mentors. Endeavor Spain, ACCIÓ of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Polish Development Fund also supported the event.

The judging panel for the final pitches included Paulo Revilla, Director of Entrepreneur Growth at Endeavor; Rocío Flor, Head of Startup Growth & Funding Advisory at ACCIÓ; Fernando Galea, Growth Banker at BBVA Spark; and Mario Brassesco, Venture Partner & Investment Director at Encomenda Smart Capital.

Romanian startup .lumen won the pitch competition with its pedestrian autonomous driving AI glasses for visually impaired users. Granter, a Portuguese AI company focused on grants consulting, came second, while Bleecker Technologies, a Spanish startup developing inventory tracking through computer vision and visual codes, placed third.

All three companies will continue to receive mentoring and advice from Michaud.

"We're incredibly honoured. We are building a technology which potentially can be of immense use for Glovo and its customers. I'm very excited, and I can't wait to get home and work on the things which we have promised to deliver," said Cornel Amariei, CEO of .lumen.

Startup Campus began in 2023 and has since hosted 53 startups, according to Glovo. The broader programme has also included more than 20 local Power Up competitions and reached more than 1,000 people.

The Barcelona gathering points to a broader pattern in Europe's technology sector, where fast-growing companies often become training grounds for future founders. Delivery Hero's research aimed to measure that effect by tracing startup creation among former staff across its regional brands.

For Glovo, the figures presented in Barcelona suggest its influence extends beyond food delivery and local commerce into startup formation. The estimated €461 million attached to the 35 Glovo-linked startups offers one measure of that footprint within the wider Delivery Hero network.

The event also highlighted Barcelona's role as a meeting point for founders from emerging and established tech markets across Europe, Central Asia and Africa. This year's participants came from countries including Spain, Portugal, Kenya, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, giving the campus a broader geographic reach than a domestic startup scheme.

By combining research, mentoring and investor exposure, the programme brought together corporate alumni data and early-stage founder support in a single event. The headline figure remained the one tied to Glovo's former employees: 35 startups with an estimated value of €461 million.