Ola’s Foodpanda acquires Holachef

Foodpanda, the online food ordering and delivery startup owned by Ola, has acquired Mumbai based food-tech startup Holachef Hospitality Pvt. Ltd for an undisclosed sum. Foodpanda will take over Holachef’s employees and kitchen equipment’s. 

Holachef marks Ola’s second acquisition within a year, which bought Foodpanda from Germany’s Delivery Hero in December last year. Ola, run by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, is seemingly leaving no stone unturned to fight it out in the online food ordering space dominated by Swiggy (Bundl Technologies Pvt. Ltd) and Zomato (Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd). Ola rival Uber India Pvt. Ltd too has entered the space with UberEats India.

Foodpanda will foray into cloud kitchens with its acquisitions. It also plans to launch its own food brand across categories. The company claims to have a network of over 1 lakh delivery partners and access to over 150 million customers. Holachef delivers home-cooked food to customers and was operational in Mumbai and Pune. The company, backed by Ratan Tata, Kalaari Capital and India Quotient, had raised $9.6 million cumulatively till date, according to data from Crunchbase.

While India’s food-tech space has seen rapid expansion in the past couple of years, several startups—including TinyOwl, Yumist and Dazo—operating in the domain have shut shop. Bengaluru-based SpoonJoy was acquired by online groceries firm Grofers in 2015.

Foodpanda in talks to buy Holachef

Foodpanda, the online food ordering and delivery marketplace owned by Ola, is in advanced talks to buy Mumbai based food tech startup Holachef Hospitality Pvt. Ltd, which shuttered operations nearly three months ago. Foodpanda will acquire Holachef Staff, brand name and kitchen equipment.

A potential acquisition would be the second within a year for Ola, India’s largest taxi aggregator. Last December, the company, run by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, bought Foodpanda from its German parent. A potential deal signals Ola’s aggressive expansion to compete in the online food ordering and delivery segment alongside players like Swiggy (Bundl Technologies Pvt. Ltd), Zomato (Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd) and the recent entrant UberEats India.

Founded in 2014, Holachef, which delivers home-cooked food to customers, closed operations in April. The startup’s Twitter handle is flooded with customer queries about its sudden absence from delivery platforms. Holachef, which was operational in Mumbai and Pune, had raised ₹ 2 crore from diamond merchant Ashok Kumar in February this year. The company backed by Ratan Tata, Kalaari Capital and venture capital fund India Quotient has raised $9.6 million cumulatively till date.

Ola was also exploring creating an independent food technology company on the lines of Flipkart’s model and was in talks to buy food brand FreshMenu (Foodvista India Pvt. Ltd) along with another private label. Holachef joins the likes of Gurugram-based Twigly that three weeks back shut operations after being in business for three years. Among other food-tech businesses, Spoonjoy (acquired by grocery delivery firm Grofers), TinyOwl, Yumist and Dazo had to shut shop as raising funds amid immense competition became increasingly difficult.