Coming out of Brexit this year, Britain’s government needed a new blueprint for the future of the nation’s financial services as cities like Amsterdam and Paris vied to become Europe’s next capital of investment and banking.
For some, the answer was Deliveroo, a London-based food delivery company with 100,000 riders on motor scooters and bicycles. Although it lost more than 226 million pounds (nearly $310 million) last year, Deliveroo offered the raw promise of many fast-growing tech startups — and it became a symbol of Britain’s new ambitions by deciding to go public and list its shares not in New York but on the London Stock Exchange.
Deliveroo is a “true British tech success story,” Rishi Sunak, Britain’s top finance official, said last month.
It was a false start. Deliveroo has since been called “the worst IPO in London’s history.” On the first day of trading, March 31, the shares dropped 26 per cent below the initial public offering price. (It has gotten worse.)
The flop has put a dent in the image of the City of London — the geographical and metaphorical…
