Jitse Groen (born 2 June 1978) is a Dutch businessman and the founder of

Takeaway.com Just Eat Takeaway.com N.V. (formerly Takeaway.com; founded as Thuisbezorgd.nl) is a Dutch multinational online food ordering and delivery company, formed from the merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which th ...

, a food delivery platform. He is the chief executive (CEO) of Takeaway.com, and, since 2020, also the CEO of

Just Eat Just Eat (formerly known legally as Just Eat plc) is an online food order and delivery brand of Netherlands-based Just Eat Takeaway.com, and a former food delivery company. Just Eat was founded as a separate company in 2001 in Kolding, Denmark ...

following its merger with Takeaway.com.

Early life

Groen was born in Delft in 1978 and raised in the villages

Kolhorn Kolhorn ( West Frisian: ''Klòrre(n)'') is a village in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Hollands Kroon, and lies about east of Schagen. History The village was first mentioned in 1518 as Kolhoiren, and m ...

and 't Veld. His mother worked as a teacher and his father was an automation engineer. He studied business information technology at the

University of Twente The University of Twente (Dutch: ''Universiteit Twente''; , abbr. ) is a public technical university located in Enschede, Netherlands. The university has been placed in the top 170 universities in the world by multiple central ranking tables. ...

, but never completed his bachelor's degree.

Career

Groen founded

(originally known as Thuisbezorgd.nl) in 2000, at the age of 21, while he was a student in Business Information Technology at the

. He came up with the idea for his business after being unable to get a takeaway delivery in

North Holland North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...

for a birthday celebration with his family. The nearest options for takeaway delivery were in Amsterdam, which was about away. It was not until 2003 that Groen quit his study as Takeaway.com entered a critical growth phase. In 2012, Groen raised

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

13 million to expand it as Takeaway.com to other countries. Groen took Takeaway.com public on the

Euronext Amsterdam Euronext Amsterdam is a stock exchange based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Formerly known as the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, it merged on 22 September 2000 with the Brussels Stock Exchange and the Paris Stock Exchange to form Euronext. The reg ...

stock exchange in 2016, in order to fund expansion of Takeaway.com in Germany and other European countries. In 2018, Groen took over Takeaway.com's main competitors in Germany from

Delivery Hero Delivery Hero is a German multinational online food-delivery service based in Berlin, Germany. The company operates in 50+ countries internationally in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East and partners with 500,000+ restaurants. Deli ...

. When Takeaway.com merged with British company

in 2020, Groen became chief executive of the merged organisation. Groen also owns 11.3% of the merged business; he previously owned 35% of Takeaway.com. In 2017, ''

Quote Quote is a hypernym of quotation, as the repetition or copy of a prior statement or thought. Quotation marks are punctuation marks that indicate a quotation. Both ''quotation'' and ''quotation marks'' are sometimes abbreviated as "quote(s)". C ...

'' magazine listed Groen as the Netherlands' richest self-made millionaire under 40. In 2018, he became a billionaire, as the interest on his Takeaway.com shares was over 1 billion euros. In 2021, Groen announced that all Just Eat workers would be entitled to minimum pay, sick pay and paid holiday, rather than being classed as

gig worker Gig workers are independent contractors, online platform workers, contract firm workers, on-call workers, and temporary workers. Gig workers enter into formal agreements with on-demand companies to provide services to the company's clients. In ...

s. In 2021 Groen responded to

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...

CEO

Dara Khosrowshahi Dara Khosrowshahi ( fa, دارا خسروشاهی, ; born May 28, 1969) is an Iranian-American businessman and the chief executive officer of Uber. Khosrowshahi was previously CEO of Expedia Group, a company that owns several travel fare aggreg ...

, who criticized Groen for focusing his attention on his company's share price, by writing: "Start paying taxes, minimum wage and social security premiums before giving a founder advice on how he should run his business." As of October 2021, his net worth was estimated at US$1.2 billion, although this has since dropped to US$350 million as of June 2022.

Personal life

Groen lives in the Netherlands. In 2017, he bought a 9 bedroom house in

Noordwijk Noordwijk () is a town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water and had a population of in . On 1 January 2019, the former municipality of Noordwij ...

that had had a guide price of €10.25 million. His hobby is flying and he has a

pilot licence Pilot licensing or certification refers to permits for operating aircraft. Flight crew licences are regulated by ICAO Annex 1 and issued by the civil aviation authority of each country. CAA’s have to establish that the holder has met a specifi ...

. Few details about Groen's personal life are publicly known.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Groen, Jitse 1978 births Living people People from Delft People from Hollands Kroon Dutch billionaires University of Twente alumni Dutch company founders