An International Company Started with the Idea of a Small Startup!
In 2012, Miki Kuusi visited San Francisco and encountered transportation difficulties getting from the airport to his hotel, as there were fewer taxis available compared to the high number of passengers. His friend recommended he use Uber. Miki was not an ordinary Finnish business traveler. From a young age, he had been interested in technology, startups, and entrepreneurship. He graduated from Aalto University, where he gained experience in entrepreneurship and technology development. During his time at the university, he participated in several startups and entrepreneurial programs, actively engaging in the startup ecosystem. Before founding Wolt, Miki Kuusi led the Slush event in Finland. Slush is a major international platform that brings together entrepreneurs, investors, and technology enthusiasts. Miki transformed Slush from a small, student-oriented event into a globally prestigious conference. He currently serves as the CEO of Slush, a student-run, non-profit startup aimed at fostering entrepreneurship in Finland. Today, this project has expanded to markets worldwide.
Miki’s journey with Uber inspired him to reflect on the possibilities that could be achieved through simple mobile communication. These ideas soon evolved into a small business concept, and two years later, in 2014, six like-minded entrepreneurs founded Wolt with the aim of making people’s lives easier. When the company was first established, they set out with a straightforward idea: to increase efficiency in the food delivery sector and create a convenient service for consumers. In building Wolt, Miki extensively leveraged his experience from Slush, attracting the right investors, technology consultants, and strategies adaptable to the global market.
Founders of Wolt:
Miki Kuusi: One of the main faces of Wolt and the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Elias Aalto: One of the founders who focused on technology and product design. He played a crucial role in creating the company’s technological infrastructure.
Juhani Mykkänen: Worked on the company’s marketing and strategic development.
Mikko Silventola: Specialist in investments and business expansion. He helped in raising the initial capital.
Oskari Petas: Played a key role in managing operational activities and ensuring service quality.
Lauri Andler: Participated in creating the startup’s initial financial system and working with investors.
A Technology-Driven Success Story: Wolt was founded as a company focused on technology and product design. Despite Helsinki’s small market size and high operational costs, the company’s initial success was marked by significant efficiency. Under the leadership of Miki Kuusi, Wolt successfully navigated the stages of global expansion. Today, it operates in over 100 cities across 23 countries, serving millions of customers and partnering with tens of thousands of restaurants and couriers.
The Path to Success: Wolt’s Journey: When Wolt started its operations in 2015, the company had only 10 partner restaurants in Helsinki and offered solely local services. However, with an initial capital of €2.5 million, Wolt’s founders decided to venture into the international online delivery world.
Despite their young age, the founders of Wolt, along with their co-founders, emerged from the startup incubators of Aalto University and had substantial experience in the startup world. This background helped them meticulously plan all the stages of fundraising. In the initial two series of financing (Series A and B), they focused on venture capital firms with extensive experience in business expansion and scaling. They hired many of their advisors from Uber’s consulting and financing companies. The later financing rounds (Series C and D) were aimed at preparing for an initial public offering (IPO), relying on investment firms that ensured expertise and thoroughness in the process.
By 2016, Wolt had expanded its platform to include international delivery services, extending its operations to neighboring Sweden and Estonia. In the Series A financing round led by EQT Ventures, Wolt raised an additional €10 million. This funding was utilized to fuel the company’s rapid growth. During this period, Wolt conducted experiments with “autonomous” robots in collaboration with Starship Technologies in Tallinn.
Upon placing an order through the Wolt app, a Starship robot securely loads the selected food items into a safe container. The small robot then navigates its way to the delivery destination, where the customer opens the container via a link in the app. While customers need to step outside to retrieve their food from the robot, the goal is to achieve a more environmentally friendly delivery method. In a blog post, Wolt stated: “We are working on how robots move on the streets and interact with people, making robotics more affordable and thereby making logistics more eco-friendly (producing significantly less carbon dioxide than a car or scooter).”
By 2017, Wolt expanded to Denmark, Latvia, and Lithuania, replacing third-party tools with its own “in-house created courier apps” and logistics system. This allowed the app to operate efficiently and independently.
In 2018, Wolt initiated its Series B funding round, managed by 83North, raising €27 million. This period marked a phase of “hypergrowth,” as the app’s workforce expanded from 100 to 300 employees to meet its goals.
By 2019, Wolt further expanded into Eastern Europe, partnering with South Pole to offset CO2 emissions for all Wolt deliveries, even for past deliveries. The company also entered its Series C funding round, led by ICONIQ Capital and Highland Europe, raising an additional €116 million.
The year 2020 was a landmark year for Wolt. Amid the onset of the Covid pandemic, the company expanded into Japan and Germany, incorporated grocery and retail into its offerings, achieved official “Unicorn” status, and secured another €100 million in funding—a monumental year indeed.
COVID-19 and Digital Transformation: A Rapid Shift in Online Food Delivery
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation at an unprecedented rate, including the online food delivery industry. According to statistics, in 2021, the global revenue from online food delivery reached €134 billion, with 1.3 billion users. Over the next three years, the annual growth rate in this sector is expected to be 6.4%. Considering the impact of COVID-19 on accelerating digital development, these projections may even be conservative.
The CEO of Wolt Hungary noted that during the first wave of the pandemic (March-April-May 2020), the market grew at the same rate in three months as it had in the previous two years. One of Wolt’s founders, Miki Kuusi, highlighted that their initial hypothesis was that all physical services would transition to online services, with the restaurant and food sectors being among the first to make this shift.
The founders of Wolt estimated that food-related expenses constitute about 10% of household expenditures, with roughly 50% of these costs spent on restaurants. Thus, when Wolt entered the market, there were few competitive platforms.
However, expansion and growth in this field are crucial because local services like food delivery do not have a global network effect. A platform that works well in one country or city might not perform as well elsewhere. Therefore, understanding the value of the network at a local level is essential, as emphasized by company specialists.
Across Hungary, Wolt provides delivery services in Budapest, Budaors, Debrecen, Gyor, Pecs, Szeged, and Szekesfehervar. The Wolt system in Hungary includes over a thousand restaurants. Wolt focuses on three priority areas:
- Customers
- Food couriers
- Restaurants
Customer engagement is demand-driven: potential customers recognize their need for food delivery and search for options on their smartphones. Among the options is Wolt, which encourages customers to download the Wolt app available on Apple App Store and Google Play.
Customer Satisfaction at Its Core: Wolt places a primary focus on customer satisfaction. Beyond simple food delivery, they offer a range of services. Compared to competitors, Wolt provides faster, safer, and more reliable service and offers compensation for any issues that arise. They guarantee not only the delivery of food but also the quality of their service.
While the world initially saw Wolt operating in a single vertical, the brand has since expanded into many other sectors and markets.
Kuusi on Wolt’s Rapid Growth and Success: In an interview, Miki Kuusi explained Wolt’s rapid growth and success by saying, “We initially focused on restaurants because it is the largest local service with a high-frequency use case. We quickly realized that the magic formula for bringing restaurants online was to provide fast and reliable delivery from restaurants that had not previously offered delivery services. We achieve this by taking on the complexities of the delivery process on behalf of the restaurant.”
However, coming from the challenging internal market of Northern Europe, Wolt needed to create an “optimized logistics setup for last-mile delivery.” This enabled the service to operate efficiently even in “very small cities with low income disparity, limited population density, and high labor costs.”
This strategy allowed Wolt to operate efficiently even when order volumes were low, enabling the company to “grow and expand rapidly with significantly less capital compared to some of its competitors in the market.” By identifying its niche, Wolt succeeded in cities and markets where its competitors had not yet ventured.
Aiming to become a “super app” similar to Grab in Southeast Asia, offering a wide range of products from pharmaceuticals to clothing, electronics, and more, the company aggressively expanded its operations. To achieve this, Wolt plans to launch “Wolt Market,” an online retail platform designed to bridge the gap with offline retailers. According to Wolt, they intend to create “the digital world version of shopping malls,” delivering to our homes and workplaces within half an hour.
Considering Wolt’s development journey, it’s somewhat surprising that the brand has managed to achieve such remarkable success. The food delivery industry is crowded and highly competitive, requiring a unique approach to attain significant success in this market.
Let’s look at a few things that set Wolt apart from its competitors.
1. The “Prioritizing Logistics Optimization” approach: To succeed in challenging market conditions like Finland, Wolt had to rely heavily on technology to be efficient. As a “second-generation provider,” i.e., a food delivery service from restaurants to customers, Wolt sees itself as “primarily a logistics optimization company.” To succeed in such a market, Wolt had to constantly optimize its technological solutions.
What does this mean? As Kuusi explains, it’s about “mathematical and technological improvements” to make the delivery business more efficient for all parties. Although customers may not notice this, Wolt has hired 180 product developers who are constantly working to improve their offerings and applications.
2. A clear and specific goal: In an interview with Kuusi Food Service, Wolt emphasized focus as a key principle of their success. According to him, “you need to focus on one thing and work to be the best in the world at it.” For Wolt, this means they don’t partner with self-delivering restaurants – they concentrate on restaurants that need delivery service.
Why? Because “the only way they can guarantee a fast and consistent customer experience at a low cost is through their technology and system.” And, of course, individual restaurants “can never make delivery as efficient and affordable as a high-tech company can.”
3. Being an international company and a local enterprise at the same time: Although Wolt is undoubtedly an international company, they place great emphasis on being a local business. Each country has its own team that manages day-to-day operations, and all content in their app is translated and localized.
In operations and marketing, Wolt hires “local talents,” which helps the app “genuinely connect with the culture of the country and the city.” Furthermore, they provide local customer support, enabling customers to receive assistance and communicate in their native language.
While ensuring that each of Wolt’s divisions maintains an authentic, local feel, this app has achieved rapid and successful expansion to over 23 countries.
Wolt and DoorDash: Merging Forces
In November 2021, it was announced that Wolt and DoorDash would be merging their forces, with DoorDash planning to acquire Wolt Enterprises OY in an all-stock deal. In an official press release from Wolt, this merger was anticipated to “accelerate our growth as we strive to achieve our shared goals.”
From Wolt’s perspective, their “focus on technological innovations, operational expertise, and consumer experience” would enable the merged companies to “create a local commerce platform and ensure significant growth for many years to come.”
As of June 1, 2022, Wolt was officially acquired by DoorDash in the aforementioned all-stock deal. This acquisition appointed Wolt CEO Miki Kuusi as the head of DoorDash International, reporting to DoorDash CEO Tony Xu.
This acquisition expanded DoorDash’s reach to a total of 27 countries, reinforcing the brand’s position as a global market leader. However, Wolt did not fade into obscurity within the DoorDash ecosystem. According to Wolt’s official press release: “Under Miki’s leadership, DoorDash aims to accelerate international growth, expedite product development, and enhance investment efficiency. The Wolt consumer app continues to operate independently, supported by the resources of the global technology company.”
In fact, both DoorDash CEO Tony Xu and Wolt CEO Miki Kuusi see this merger as an opportunity to enhance their combined brand. In his speech in the press release, Kuusi stated, “Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Wolt. By joining forces with DoorDash, we have the opportunity to create exciting products and services across continents. Our two companies share a strong vision for local commerce, and together we can achieve more.”
New Services and Expansion: Beyond 2022, Wolt did not limit itself to food delivery but ventured into other areas as well. The company expanded its services to include the delivery of daily consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, and other essential products. This allowed users to meet various needs through a single platform.
Wolt developed the “Wolt+ Premium” membership service, enabling customers to enjoy additional benefits, including reduced delivery costs and faster services.
Economic Indicators and Financial Growth: The merger with DoorDash significantly improved Wolt’s financial performance. The company achieved substantial growth in global revenues and user numbers. According to DoorDash’s report, Wolt’s revenues exceeded €300 million in 2023, doubling the previous year’s figure. The company successfully expanded its user base to over 15 million by entering new service segments, including daily necessities delivery. Furthermore, operational optimizations conducted in conjunction with DoorDash significantly reduced costs and increased profit margins.
In 2023, the company expanded its operations to five new countries by entering new markets. This further strengthened the company’s global competitiveness. Additionally, the increased demand for premium services among users significantly boosted the revenues of the Wolt+ service.
E-commerce Giant Wolt Officially Begins Operations in Uzbekistan
On October 4th of this year, the “Wolt” e-commerce platform officially began its operations in Uzbekistan, marking its entry into the 28th market. Starting with a small team in Finland, the company now operates in over 500 cities around the world, employing more than 13,000 people and partnering with 150,000 business centers. Known for its fast and reliable food and goods delivery services, Wolt continues to grow globally with over 43 million registered users and 250,000 couriers.
To commemorate the launch, a press breakfast was held where Olli Rissanen, head of expansion at Wolt, spoke about significant growth opportunities in Uzbekistan. “The market in Europe is ten times more saturated compared to Uzbekistan. There is great potential for expansion here for Wolt,” Rissanen commented. He also emphasized that Wolt welcomes competition from other established businesses and views it as a natural part of its global operations. “Competition is not new to us,” Rissanen stated, highlighting Wolt’s experience in managing competitive environments.
International Expansion Manager Elina Hakkarainen supported these views in an interview, describing Uzbekistan as a “very exciting and growing market.” She portrayed the country as a natural next step for Wolt following their successes in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. “Uzbekistan is a natural direction for our development,” she added.
By Zukhrakhon Mansurova
Leave a Reply