Food-delivery startup Swiggy to acquire Uber Eats

Online food delivering service Swiggy will soon be acquiring its business rival Uber Eats. Uber Eats is also food-delivering service which was started by the transportation network company Uber.

Reports suggest that Swiggy is already in the final stage of negotiations with Uber regarding the merger. The deal between the two companies will most likely reach its conclusion by next month. The Swiggy-Uber deal will be a share deal in which Uber will get 10 percent stake of Swiggy.

If this deal finalizes, then Swiggy will have an upper hand over another big rival in the Indian market – Zomato. For those unaware, Zomato is among the biggest players in the food-tech segment. Earlier, Swiggy was also in talks with Zomato about a merger, however the latter denied and the deal failed. The report, which was first published in Economic Times, stated “The development is in line with Uber’s global strategy to cut down on losses as it prepares for a public offering at a possible valuation of $120-150 billion.”

In 2018, Swiggy gained the unicorn status and a few weeks back, the company started a new service where it would deliver food essentials along with food. If the report about Swiggy being in merger talks with Uber Eats is true, it just goes to show that the food-delivery start-up has become a very prominent player in the market. If the merger is successful, Swiggy would gain a huge advantage over its competitors.

As of 2018, Swiggy has gained $1 billion in funding and totalled the value at an astonishing $3.3 billion, according to a report by Business Insider.

Speaking about the funding, Sriharsha Majety who is the CEO of Swiggy had said, “With this funding, we will further invest in building differentiated offerings, plugging the white spaces in the ecosystem, and developing our technology while keeping superlative customer experience at the core.”

Uber Eats entered the Indian market in May 2017, and it primarily did well because it was a part of Uber. The company hasn’t limited itself to just cabs and food services. Recently, Uber also announced its water-based transport called UberBOAT and UberBOAT XL, but these services are only available in Mumbai as of now.