Zomato acquires Runnr to strengthen its food-delivery platform

Amidst intense competition from rapidly-growing rivals like Swiggy and FoodPanda, Food-tech startup Zomato has acquired Nexus Venture-backed Runnr aimed at strengthening its food delivery platform. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"With the combination of Zomato and Runnr, we have everything in the stack of building a delightful food delivery service in India and UAE - end to end - listings, discovery, reviews, ordering, and now, logistics," Deepinder Goyal, founder and chief executive officer of Zomato said in a blog.

Runnr is expected to boost Zomato’s delivery capabilities and help the New Delhi-based startup build a captive fleet of delivery personnel—a model very similar to rival Swiggy’s. According to Goyal, the deal was being worked upon since the last couple of months. Following the deal, 1500 strong workforce of Runnr will join Zomato.

Runnr already fulfills about 300,000 orders a month, Goyal said, adding that Runnr founder Kumar would remain CEO and continue to work on the strategic vision for the startup with the rest of his team.

Goyal also said that Runner will continue to function as an independent logistics firm and cater to companies other than Zomato as well, including pharmaceutical, grocery and e-commerce clients.

Runnr, operated by Carthero Technologies was formed after on-demand logistics startup Roadrunnr acquired troubled food-ordering startup TinyOwl in a share-swap transaction in June last year, a deal orchestrated by the common investors of the two startups. Runnr then pivoted to food delivery.