Will Zomato takeover UberEats?

News Network
December 16, 2019

New Delhi, Dec 16: The online food delivery industry in India is set for a big churn as Uber has reportedly entered advanced stages of talks to sell UberEat's India business to rival Zomato by the end of this year.

According to a TechCrunch report on Monday citing sources, the deal "currently values UberEats' India business at around $400 million".

As part of the deal, "Uber may invest between $150 to $200 million in Zomato", the report claimed, citing sources.

As an event in Delhi earlier this month, Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said the company is aiming to raise up to $600 million in a new funding round.

When contacted, Zomato said it "does not comment on rumours or speculations".

Despite arriving in the Indian market in 2017, UberEats has not made enough inroads in the online food delivery segment.

Zomato is currently delivering 1.3 million orders a day from 150,000 restaurants across India at more than 10 orders per restaurant per day.

Swiggy has expanded its services to 500 cities in India, matching rival Zomato's reach in the country. Swiggy, which has added 60,000 new restaurants in the past six months, said in October it would expand to 600 cities by December 2019.

Since April 2019, Swiggy has increased the number of restaurant partners by almost 1.8 times to 1.4 lakh restaurants currently. In tier-3 and tier-4 cities specifically, Swiggy has onboarded over 15,000 restaurants in the last six months.

The market is piping hot as according to a recent study by business consultancy firm Market Research Future, the online food ordering market in India is likely to grow at over 16 per cent annually to touch $17.02 billion by 2023.

UberEats last week launched its operations in Cuttack, its second city in Orissa, saying it Awill partner with a number of local restaurants such as Mirchi, Biryani Box, DFC Dada's Biryani, Burger Adda Factory.

In a recent interaction, UberEats told IANS that it is not only going to stay put in the growing food tech industry in India but is also building strong linkages with restaurant partners for a seamless delivery experience for its customers.

"Right now, we are more focused on delivery with the restaurant partners. We are learning in the India market and making our mark in that space before we can add anything more to it," said Bansi Kotecha who is Head of Operations, Uber Eats.

The deal is reportedly in the works as merger reports of Bengaluru-based Swiggy and Gurugram-based Zomato -- two biggest players in the burgeoning online food delivery market - have also resurfaced.

The merger talks between the two food delivery platforms have revived as the competition is set to grow with Amazon's reported expansion into online food delivery business in the country.

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Agencies
March 18,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 18: To raise awareness about protective measures against coronavirus, Kerala Police released a dance video on the State Police Media Centre's Facebook page promoting the washing of hands, here on Tuesday.

In the video, the police officers were seen dancing to the tunes of Kalakkatha from the Malayalam action-drama thriller Ayyappanum Koshiyum while demonstrating the right technique for washing hands.

The video gained over 27,000 likes and over 2,400 comments and more than 33,000 netizens shared the video.

The video has received a positive response with users congratulating Kerala Police for the initiative.

"Congrats Kerala police media for this kind of initiative," one user commented on Facebook. Another user thanked the police in the comments section saying, "Super super thanks to KL (Kerala) police."

The number of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus in Kerala is 25.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India has reached 147, including 122 Indians and 25 foreign nationals, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare earlier today.

Globally, the virus has infected more than 184,000 people and killed more than 7500, as per the data available on the World Health Organisation website.

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Agencies
June 28,2020

The US space agency has thrown open a challenge to win over Rs 26 lakh, calling the global community to send novel design concepts for compact toilets that can operate in both microgravity and lunar gravity.

NASA is preparing for return to the Moon and innumerable activities to equip, shelter, and otherwise support future astronauts are underway.

The astronauts will be eating and drinking, and subsequently urinating and defecating in microgravity and lunar gravity.

NASA said that while astronauts are in the cabin and out of their spacesuits, they will need a toilet that has all the same capabilities as ones here on Earth.

The public designs for space toilet may be adapted for use in the Artemis lunar landers that take humans back to the Moon.

"Although space toilets already exist and are in use (at the International Space Station, for example), they are designed for microgravity only," the US space agency said in a statement.

NASA's Human Landing System Programme is looking for a next-generation device that is smaller, more efficient, and capable of working in both microgravity and lunar gravity.

The new NASA challenge includes a Technical category and Junior category and the last date to send designs is August 17.

NASA's Artemis Moon mission will land the first woman and next man on the lunar surface by 2024.

The Artemis programme is part of America's broader Moon to Mars exploration approach, in which astronauts will explore the Moon and experience gained there to enable humanity's next giant leap, sending humans to Mars.

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Agencies
June 12,2020

Mumbai, Jun 12: Following an overwhelming response for the mega rights issue of Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries, the partly paid-up rights shares are set to debut on stock exchanges on June 15.

The biggest ever Rs 53,124 crore rights issue was subscribed 1.59 times and received bids worth Rs 84,000 crore on June 3.

Reliance said the rights issue saw a huge investor interest, including from lakhs of small investors and thousands of institutional investors, both Indian and foreign.

In 2019, Ambani said in the Reliance's annual general meeting that the company will be net zero debt by March 2021. The company is on course to achieve its target ahead of the deadline.

"In spite of the COVID-19 crisis and the lockdowns, the due-diligence by Saudi Aramco for the planned investment in the O2C business is on track as both the parties are committed and actively engaged," he said recently.

"With a strong visibility to these equity infusions, Reliance is set to achieve net zero debt status ahead of its own aggressive timeline. We believe rights issue was a part of the company's strategy of deleveraging its balance sheet," said Ambani. 

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