UberEATS, Zomato in race to acquire delivery startup Runnr

There has been a consolidation spree going in the food tech space for quite some time now and if reports are to be believed, there is a new potential acquisition target on the block. According to media reports, UberEATS, the food delivery service launched by Uber in India and restaurant-listings startup Zomato are looking to acquire last-mile delivery startup Runnr.

While UberEATS, which started a month back is looking to ramp up its presence through this acquisition, the other candidate Zomato is looking to consolidate its position in the market and take on its major competitor Swiggy. UberEATS is willing to pay a higher amount for the acquisition than Zomato which is willing to play close to US$20 million in an all-stock deal.

Runnr came into existence after on-demand logistics startup Roadrunnr acquired food-ordering startup TinyOwl in June 2016. Since then, Runnr has focused its energies on the food delivery space.

While Swiggy has taken the lead in the delivery space, Zomato is not far behind. Zomato initial business model was to aggregate restaurants on its platform and works as an advertising platform for the restaurants. However, it soon realized that advertising wasn’t enough and it started partnering with third-party delivery partners such as Runnr and Grab to fulfil deliveries.

The potential acquisition of Runnr will bolster Zomato’s capabilities in the food delivery space which were strengthened by a minority stake acquisition in Grab in 2015.