India’s leading cab aggregating company, Ola Cabs, is in talks to acquire private label food firms to create an independent Food Technology Company. Just days after acquiring the transportation booking startup Ridlr, the taxi hailing company is reportedly eyeing the food brand startup Freshmenu, along with other similar foodtech startups to form a separate food entity.
Livemint reported, according to sources close to the development, Ola has held talks to buy the food brand Freshmenu. However, no deal has been agreed to yet with either firm. ANI Technologies Pvt., Ltd., has been on an acquisition spree since December last year. After acquiring the food delivery startup Foodpanda, Ola also acquired Ridlr last week. The company also raised close to $ 3.9 million in the past months from 20 different investors in a series of funding rounds, eyeing to hit profitability by the financial year 2019. Ola’s parent company ANI Technologies is also planning to raise funds separately for Foodpanda later this year in order to tap into the strong investor demand for foodtech startups. The cab hailing firm is looking to create a larger group company similar to Flipkart to increase the valuation of the company by having independent assets.
Freshmenu, founded by Rashmi Daga in 2014, is a meal kit delivery service aimed at busy urban individuals who seek nutritious food. With investors such as Zodius Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, the company has raised about $ 21.5 million to date. Freshmenu operates 35 cloud kitchens across Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi NCR and claims to receive 13,000 orders per day with an average order valued at Rs. 325.
India’s foodtech industry has also been witnessing a lot of growth with both Swiggy and Zomato expanding operations aggressively. Along with homegrown startups, international players such as Uber and Google have also ventured into the foodtech industry via Uber Eats and Google Areo. Indian ecommerce giant Flipkart is also rumoured to be launching a one stop app soon. However, while investors are ready to shell out millions into the $ 19 billion foodtech market, the effect this acquisition has on Ola and Freshmenu is yet to be seen.
