Zomato acquires Indian operations of Uber Eats

Indian food delivery app Zomato has agreed to acquire Uber’s food delivery business in India in an all-stock transaction.

The deal, which gives Uber 9.99% ownership in Zomato, will strengthen Zomato’s position as an online food delivery and restaurant discovery platform.  

As a result of the acquisition, Uber Eats will discontinue its operations in India and will direct restaurants, delivery partners and users of its Uber Eats app to the Zomato platform.

Deepinder Goyal, CEO of Zomato, said: “We are proud to have pioneered restaurant discovery and to have created a leading food delivery business across more than 500 cities in India. This acquisition significantly strengthens our position in the category.”

In March 2018, Uber sold its South East Asian operations, including the UberEats food delivery service to Singapore-based food delivery and rideshare service Grab.

Under the terms of the deal, Grab took over Uber’s operations in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. However, Uber also agreed to take a 27.5% stake in Grab.

Since, the divestiture of its South East Asian operations, Uber also announced that it would terminate its food delivery service in South Korea.

However, in October last year, Uber Technologies agreed to acquire a majority ownership stake in Chilean online grocery provider Cornershop, highlighting the company’s efforts to broaden its delivery service and expand into the grocery store market.

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, said: “Our Uber Eats team in India has achieved an incredible amount over the last two years, and I couldn’t be prouder of their ingenuity and dedication.

“India remains an exceptionally important market to Uber and we will continue to invest in growing our local rides business, which is already the clear category leader. We have been very impressed by Zomato’s ability to grow rapidly in a capital-efficient manner and we wish them continued success.”