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Zomato to acquire Uber Eats assets in India

Published on December 23, 2019

If you read our articles on DigitalFoodLab Insights, Zomato will not be a discovery. We have extensively covered the Indian restaurant delivery, known for its staggering growth or its issues with the restaurants due to its Zomato Gold loyalty program. Now, the unicorn is said to be ready to acquire all Uber Eats’ assets in India for $400m. Uber Eats won’t totally leave the country, it may invest and take some equity in Zomato.

Why it matters?

Again, it shows how India’s delivery startups are getting strong enough to compete with US giants such as Uber. Indeed, Uber Eats was known to be struggling in the competition against Zomato and Swiggy (the other Indian restaurant delivery giant). 
Two more long term should be added:

  1. We can’t stress enough how India’s FoodTech ecosystem is inspiring for the future of delivery, massive investments are made there each week and anyone serious about food delivery should look at them as they give a good picture of what the future may be in this area.
  2. Restaurant Delivery platforms is a winner’s takes all business (or to be more accurate a number one and number two business). There is no room for “number 3”. As we have seen in Europe with the take over of Delivery Hero’s EU activities and Just Eat by TakeAway, only one or two restaurant delivery companies can hope to survive (i.e. be big enough to make a profit) in each market.

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More on the deal here

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