ON THE PLATTER: ZOMATO BUYS RUNNR IN ALLSTOCK DEAL

BENGALURU: Food-technology startup Zomato Media Pvt Ltd has acquired delivery startup Runnr as part of an all-stock deal that would help the former significantly shore up its food delivery business, amid intense competition from rapidly-growing rivals such as Swiggy.

The deal, which was announced by Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal in a blog post on Wednesday, is expected to bolster Zomato’s delivery capabilities and help the New Delhi-based startup build a fleet of delivery personnel — a model very similar to Swiggy’s (Bundl Technologies Pvt Ltd).

Zomato did not disclose the deal value, but Mint had reported on May 15 that the deal could be pegged at about $20 million.

“We’ve been adding to our Runnr team over the past week; it is already 1,500 strong, and growing by the day...yes, that’s right, we just signed our long-rumoured acquisition of Runnr,” Goyal said in the blog post. “Emotionally, the deal has been in place for a couple of months now, and both the teams have been working closely with each other. Mohit Kumar, the founder and CEO of Runnr, has been living in Delhi (moving from Bangalore) for about two months already.”

Goyal said that the talks to acquire Runnr had started in May. Mint had first reported on May 15 that Zomato was in advanced talks to acquire Runnr (Carthero Technologies Pvt Ltd).

The deal also hands out a lifeline to Runnr which has struggled to raise funds in the recent past. It has raised about $20-25 million since it started out in 2015 from investors such as Nexus Venture Partners, Blume Ventures and Sequoia Capital.