Ola’s Foodpanda buys Holachef, looks to enter cloud kitchens

Foodpanda

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, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Mint had on 2 August reported that Foodpanda was in advanced talks to buy Holachef, which had shuttered operations in April this year.

Foodpanda will take over Holachef’s employees and kitchen equipments. Holachef founders—Anil Gelra, Gaurav Srivastava and Saurabh Saxena—will join the leadership team at Foodpanda.

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.

“We aim to build India’s largest cloud kitchen network that will be a major step in further elevating the food experience for our customers,” said Pranay Jivrajka, chief executive at Foodpanda. “I am delighted to welcome the Holachef team on board and look forward to their joining us in our mission of delivering superior food experiences to a billion Indians.”

Founded in 2014, 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.

“We are delighted to join hands with Foodpanda to accelerate our mission. We are thrilled to be part of Foodpanda’s and Ola’s passionate team that is truly changing the food experience for a billion Indians,” said Saurabh Saxena, co-founder and chief executive at Holachef.

Mint had in April reported that Ola may raise fresh funds for Foodpanda and was in talks to acquire Freshmenu (Foodvista India Pvt. Ltd) and private-label food firms.

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.

Source:-https://www.livemint.com/Companies/PhBNgPUMBm6b8iJ8OBldsK/Foodpanda-acquires-Mumbaibased-Holachef.html

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