British food delivery firm Deliveroo has confirmed plans for its London IPO in concert with disclosing a narrowing underlying loss last year of US$308.93 million.

The Deliveroo IPO is one of the most eagerly watched-for initial public offerings (IPOs) in the first half of this year in the UK, and is expected to value the company at more than $7 billion.

In a trading update alongside its IPO circular, the company said it had grown the total number of transactions processed on its online platform – the so-called Gross Transaction Value – by 64.3 per cent last year to $5.67 billion, from $3.46 billion.

Over the same period, underlying gross profit rose 89.5 per cent $495 million from $261 million, pushing underlying gross profit as a percentage of GTV from 7.6 per cent to 8.8 per cent.

As flagged last week, the company said it planned to use a dual-class share structure that will give co-founder Will Shu more control over the company.

In a statement, Shu said Deliveroo had grown “so much bigger than I ever would have thought possible”.

“We are building delivery-only kitchens, delivering groceries, building tools for restaurants to take them into the digital age – things I never contemplated when we launched. Yet we truly believe we are still getting started. Our ambitions have increased as we start to truly understand and execute on the opportunity in front of us in online food.”

He said while a lot had changed since the company launched eight years ago, two very important things had not.

“First, we are customer-obsessed. And second, we are all about food. And if there are two principles that govern us here, it’s these. Serving our restaurants, our grocery partners, our riders and of course our end consumers is what we’re all about. All working together in the service of great food. That will never change.”

* Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Rachel Armstrong, of Reuters. Additional reporting by Robert Stockdill.