After weeks of speculations, Ola owned FoodPanda has finally acquired Mumbai based Holachef for undisclosed amount. Speculations were already rife in the market that FoodPanda was aggressively pursuing the acquisition of Holachef, which had pulled down its shutter earlier this year.
FoodPanda (India) CEO Pranay Jivrajka said that the latest acquisition will help the company in building its cloud kitchen business. He, however, declined to elaborate more over this matter. Ola’s sudden interest in consolidating its cloud kitchen business is least surprising given that Swiggy and Zomato have already taken big strides on this front.
Meanwhile, as part of the deal, FoodPanda will take over Holachef’s kitchen and also its equipment. The employees of the defunct startup will also come on the board while the founders will become part of Foodpanda’s leadership team.
FoodPanda and Holachef, in a way, represent the fluctuating fortunes of the foodtech delivery industry. While the former is symbolic of the ongoing resurgence in the industry, the latter represents industry’s downfall during the consolidation phase witnessed over the last one and half years.
Holachef’s fall from the grace is especially surprising given that it was backed by high-profile investors like Ratan Tata and Kalaari Capital. In fact, months before winding up its operations, the Mumbai headquartered startups had raised Rs 2 crore from diamond merchant Ashok Kumar Gajera.
Analysts claim that competition in India’s foodtech delivery market has become so intense that only those startups with deep reserves and higher fundraising capacities can really survive. This claim is vindicated by the fact that Zomato raised another $210 Mn from existing investor Ant Financials only a few days back.
Zomato’s latest fundraising is, however, likely to prove a small part of long fundraising trail that is likely to follow in the coming months. While Zomato is likely to continue to pursue for more funds, Swiggy and FoodPanda are unlikely to remain a silent spectator in the fundraising game.
