Ola to Take Over Food Delivery Marketplace Foodpanda’s India Unit, Pump in $200 Million in Investments

Ola, the Uber rival in India, is entering the food delivery space after it announced a deal to acquire Foodpanda’s India business from its parent company Delivery Hero.

Ola, the online transport service now based in Bangalore, said today that it would invest $200 million into Foodpanda’s Indian business, adding that this would be the largest injection of cash into the country’s digital food ordering and delivery industry. Foodpanda is a German-based food delivery marketplace that was bought up by its larger rival Delivery Hero in 2016.

Pranay Jivrajka, founding partner at Ola, will serve as interim chief executive of the Foodpanda unit in India, according to a report appeared on CNBC.

“As one of India’s pioneers in the food delivery space, Foodpanda has come to be a very efficient and profit-focused business over the last couple of years,” Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder, and CEO of Ola said. Mr. Aggarwal was quoted on CNBC.

“Our commitment to invest $200 million in Foodpanda India will help the business be focused on growth by creating value for customers and partners,” Aggarwal said.

Uber announced the launch of its UberEats meal ordering and delivery platform based in San Francisco earlier this year.

“With Delivery Hero’s global leadership and Ola’s platform capabilities with unique local insights, this partnership is born out of strength,” Aggarwal added.

Foodpanda, according to Zee Business, claims to have menus from over 15,000 restaurants across 100 cities in India. While Ola that was founded by IIT Bombay alumni Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati in 2011, said it has users across 110 cities who can book from over 800,000 vehicles across cabs, auto-rickshaws, and taxis.