Ola Acquires Foodpanda to Compete UberEats in Food Delivery Services

Cab Company Ola acquired Foodpanda which is a food delivery service and is expected to invest $200 million. Recently, Uber also launched UberEats which is providing similar services. Now after competing in cab services, these two companies will expand their reach in food delivery services.

Strategic move by Ola to Acquire Foodpanda

Ola acquired Foopanda from its parent company, a German based food delivery company Delivery Hero. The deal was finalized in $50 million according to the sources. Foodpanda had a tough competition in India with Zomato and Swiggy which pushed Foodpanda at number three spot.

Not being able to retain the first position led the company to get acquired by Ola which is an Indian cab company owned by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati. Ola has pledged to invest $200 million further into the business. Ola is planning to expand Foodpanda further to every region of India.

The strategic reason behind its acquiring of Foodpanda is the expansion of UberEats, which is subsidiary of Uber. Uber has already started its branch six months ago in Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Hyderabad. It has now 300+ partnered restaurants in Hyderabad.

Jason Droege, Head of UberEverything said that they have 108 cities where UberEats is available as of July 2017. Out of which 27 places have shown profit while the aim is to expand it to 200 global cities.

Further Expansion of these two will lead to more jobs and investment

Foodpanda, which was acquired by Delivery Hero Last year from Rocket Internet has its branches in 53 cities of India while Uber is working to expand it much further. Both Ola and Uber have said to invest in the food delivery business. Opening of more branches will further lead to creation of direct and indirect jobs in all across India.

Now the market has become more competitive for Zomato and Swiggy that will be full of advantage for the consumers. Uber Eats has partnership with 5000 restaurants in India and is planning to expand more.

On the other hand, Foodpanda too have near about 4500+ restaurants in its partnership which means a bonus for Ola who will not have to start from scratch. Only time will tell who will gain more between them but one thing is sure that it will surely benefit the consumers who previously had limited access to them.