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.

Zomato acquires delivery startup Runnr

Food technology startup Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd has acquired delivery start-up Runnr as part of a widely expected, all stock deal that would help the former significantly shore up its food delivery business, amid intense competition from rapidly growing rivals such as Swiggy.

The deal also hands out a lifeline to Runnr which has struggled to raise funds in the recent past. It has raised about $20-25 million since it started out in 2015 from investors such as Nexus Venture Partners, Blume Ventures and Sequoia Capital. Runnr was a product of a merger between hyperlocal delivery start-up Roadrunnr and food-ordering start-up TinyOwl.

Goyal said Runnr was already fulfilling about 300,000 orders a month. He added that Runnr founder Mohit Kumar will remain chief executive and will continue to work on the strategic vision for the start-up with the rest of his team. He said the acquired firm will continue to be run independently by Kumar.

Prior to its buyout of Runnr, Zomato used to aggregate restaurants on its platform and works with third-party delivery partners such as Runnr and Grab to execute deliveries. In September 2015, Zomato had picked up a minority stake in Grab (Grab a Grub Services Pvt. Ltd) to bolster its food delivery business.

Roadrunnr acquires TinyOwl

Hyperlocal delivery start-up Roadrunnr has acquired Food Ordering firm TinyOwl Technology Pvt. Ltd and has transitioned into a food ordering and delivery platform. It has also rebranded itself is Runnr.

After its acquisition of TinyOwl, the company has decided to reposition itself as a customer centric platform and launched a full integrated app called Runnr which is now available on the iOS and Google play store. Roadrunnr and TinyOwl have common investors in Sequoia Capital and Nexus Venture Partners.

Runnr food ordering app is currently live in South Mumbai with over 150 Restaurants. There is no minimum order size and the app offers live tracking of delivery. Roadrunnr may exit the business of delivering products for e-commerce companies and focus on a few select categories such as food, groceries and merchant-to-merchant or first mile deliveries.

The food delivery and takeaway market in India was pegged at $12.8 Million in 2014, however the actual penetration level has been only 0.7%. Around 27% of the 40 Million online shoppers order food online and the takeaway market is four times the delivery market.

Innerchef acquires EatOnGo and Flavour Labs

Food technology start-up Innerchef, which operates in the ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat meals segment has acqui-hired two food startups, Flavour Labs in Gurgaon and EatOnGo in Bengaluru, signaling further consolidation in the food tech segment starved of cash after investors clawed back on investments late last year.

Acqui-hiring is essentially done for the target company talent pool more than its products and services. The acquisition of Flavour Labs, a food truck company, will help Innerchef enter the mobile kitchen segment, while EatOnGo, which specializes in breakfasts, will help the company expand its presence in Bengaluru. EatOnGo was launched in May 2015 while Flavour Labs started its operations in 2014.

In September last year, Innerchef had raised Rs. 11 Crore in a pre-series A funding round from a clutch of investors including redBus and Paytm founders. Apart from ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat meals, Innerchef operates a Hyperlocal marketplace for desserts sourced from home bakers and bakeries in Delhi, Gurgaon and Bengaluru.

Several food tech start-ups have shut shop following a slowdown in investment while some have been acquired by well capitalized rivals. While Internet first kitchen SpoonJoy was bought by Hyperlocal delivery startup Grofers, another startup Dazo shut shop the same month. Bigger Businesses such as Zomato and TinyOwl have pruned their workforce last year.