Mumbai based online ticketing firm BookMYShow, has acquired Network 18 owned Mumbai based food delivery and restaurant discovery firm Burrp for Rs. 6.2 lakhs. This all cash deal has been termed as a slump sale when compared to the Rs. 4.25 crores that Infomedia18 paid to buy Burrp in 2009.
This divestment is being carried out by Foodfesta Wellcare Private Limited which is a subsidiary of BigTree Entertainment which owns and operates BookMyShow. The sale was finalized 2 months after the board of Network18 gave an in principal approval to sell Burrp. Employees, existing restaurant partnership and other key assets will be transferred to BookMyShow in accordance with the deal.
Burrp founded in 2006 by Deep Ubhi and Anand Jain competes with food discovery and delivery startup Zomato. The founders moved on to pursue their own ventures in 2009, after the buyout and from 2010 to 2014, Burrp saw several top management changes. In 2014, Reliance Industries bought Network18 and relaunched Burrp with a new management team. Burrp has also ventured into offer redemption and couponing along with the ticketing of food and beverages events and currently list over 60,000 restaurants in 14 cities.
However, leading online ticketing firm BookMyShow does not plan to get into the food delivery business even with the current acquisition and both the apps will operate independently for now. A spokesperson for BMS said that there could be a possibility of integration of services. BookMyShow users can also pre book food and beverages at cinemas while booking their movie tickets. The spokesperson also added that at the food and beverage segment for BookMyShow has been growing rapidly and has witnessed a 6x growth between FY-16 and FY- 17.
BookMyShow also offers executive and free discount coupons at popular restaurants near cinemas and has partnered with more than 2,100 food retail brands in about 80 cities. They cover over 6,400 outlets around 1,100 cinemas across India. This is their third acquisition this year after raising Rs. 550 crores from Stripes Group last year. The company previously acquired Hyderabad based MastiTickets in January and Pune based even platform Townscript in February.
The head of merger and acquisitions for BookMyShow Mani Vora said the food is an integral activity of the movie going experience in India and this is where Burrp will fit in for them.