Nokia chairman, Skype founder invest in Finnish food delivery startup

[HELSINKI] Finnish food ordering startup Wolt on Friday announced it had raised US$11 million of new funding from investors including Nokia Chairman Risto Siilasmaa and Niklas Zennstrom, the founder of video chat service Skype.

The lead investor of the fund raising round was EQT Ventures, and other shareholders included Ilkka Paananen, the CEO of mobile games firm Supercell.

Kees Koolen, former CEO of Booking.com and a co-founder of EQT Ventures, will join Wolt's board of directors.

Wolt joins a string of recently-founded companies in the food delivery market, including Berlin-based Delivery Hero, valued at about US$3 billion, and Britain's Deliveroo.

Users of Wolt's mobile app can order home-delivered food and follow the delivery updates on a Uber-style map.

About 400 restaurants and 100,000 users have signed up in Finland, and on Friday the company launched in Stockholm.

"We are looking to expand to other countries, starting with the Nordic region," Wolt CEO Miki Kuusi said.

REUTERS