Ola buys Foodpanda

Foodpanda India has been looking to trim expenses and build a robust balance sheet.The delivery firm, which works with 15000 restaurants in India, shrunk its losses by almost 70% last year, making it a sweet purchase for Ola.

Taxi aggregator Ola has bought Food panda India from its German parent Delivery Hero group in a stock deal pegged at about $40 million,re-entering a resurgent food delivery market that has matured and becme more competitive in the past year.

The online food delivery industry frew at 150% year-on-year with an estimated gross merchandise value of $300 million in 2016,according to India Brand Equity Foundation, a government trust.With online food delivery players like Foodpanda,Zomato,Tinyowl and Swiggy building scale through partnerships,”the organized food business has a huge potential and a promising future”,

Ola has earlier entered the food delivery business in 2014 with Ola Café, which was shut down.The firm’s rival Ubermade its foray into the segment with UberEATS recently. Companies such as Swiggy,Zomato are already in the fray.

                                                                                                                      By-Sangeeta