Ola to buy online food delivery company foodpanda India from Delivery Hero

Ola acquisition of foodpanda India : Indian online cab booking company Ola has struck a deal to acquire foodpanda India, an online food delivery company from Germany-based Delivery Hero for an undisclosed price.

In return, Delivery Hero will get an undisclosed stake in Ola and will secure an investment of $200 million from the online cab booking company into foodpanda India.

Currently, foodpanda India serves more than 100 cities in India, providing food deliveries from more than 15,000 restaurants.

Ola stated that its collaboration with foodpanda India will help the latter emerge as the most preferred online food delivery company in India. Currently, Swiggy is dominating the online food delivery service in India and has been recently joined by Uber Eats as another player in this segment to go along with foodpanda.

foodpanda India. Photo courtesy of foodpanda India.

Bhavish Aggarwal – the CEO of Ola, commenting on the Ola acquisition of foodpanda India, said: “I’m excited about our partnership with Delivery Hero as we team up to take foodpanda India to the next level. As one of India’s pioneers in the food delivery space, foodpanda has come to be a very efficient and profit focused business over the last couple of years.

“Our commitment to invest $200mn in foodpanda India will help the business be focused on growth by creating value for customers and partners. With Delivery Hero’s global leadership and Ola’s platform capabilities with unique local insights, this partnership is born out of strength.”

For Delivery Hero, which is a global online food ordering and delivery marketplace, the stake in Ola will enable it to take part in the long term food delivery opportunity in India.

Foodpanda India accounts to 1.9% of its total segment revenues recorded for the first nine months of 2017.

Delivery Hero says that the transaction aligns with its strategy to build its leadership positions further and consolidate markets.

It was only last year around this time that Delivery Hero had acquired the Berlin-based foodpanda and its subsidiary foodpanda India.

Commenting on the Ola acquisition of foodpanda India, Niklas Ostberg – the CEO of Delivery Hero, said: “The partnership with Ola will allow us to further consolidate markets where it strategically makes sense to collaborate with leading local players.

“At the same time we consider our stake in Ola as a very valuable asset, while Ola’s investment commitment in Foodpanda India is a clear and confident signal to the Indian market. The foodpanda India team has done a tremendous job building the business and we look forward to supporting them and the Ola team in the future.”