According to credible sources, leading online food delivery company Swiggy is going to buy Times Internet-backed dining out website Dineout for close to $150 – $200 million (about Rs 1,500 crore).
Dineout was in talks with Cred, a renowned financial company, but Swiggy appears to have won the contest.
Dineout and Swiggy are in the closing stages of negotiations for a $200 million acquisition, according to sources (at the current valuation of Dineout).
Swiggy and Dineout did not respond to requests for comment right away. Food delivery giant Swiggy’s main competitor, Zomato, is already in the restaurant market.
Ankit Mehrotra, Nikhil Bakshi, Sahil Jain, and Vivek Kapoor established Dineout in 2012. The dining out platform was acquired by Times Internet in 2014 for an estimated Rs 60 crore.
The pandemic’s last two years had a major impact on the country’s dining out industry, and dineout business was also impacted.
According to the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), the Indian food services industry saw a significant contraction in FY21, resulting in the permanent closure of over 25% of food business operators and the loss of approximately 24 lakh jobs.
Swiggy raised $700 million last month, led by Invesco, to expand its whole operations, according to the company.
“In FY21, the food services industry in India declined by 53 per cent and was estimated to be worth Rs 2,00,762 crore, compared to Rs 4,23,624 crore in FY2020,” stated Kabir Suri, President, NRAI.
Currently at $10.7 billion valuation, Swiggy entered the list of Indian decacorns (startups valued at $10 billion and above).
Swiggy also raised $1.25 billion investment last year.
What is Dineout App?
Dineout was founded in 2012 by Ankit Mehrotra, Nikhil Bakshi, Sahil Jain, and Vivek Kapoor, and was purchased by Times Internet Limited for $10 million two years later. Miten Sampat, who joined CRED last year after serving on the board of Dineout, was the former Chief Strategy Officer of Times Internet.
The company has a business-to-consumer (B2C) service that connects customers with restaurant discounts and specials, as well as a business-to-business (B2B) offering that assists businesses with technology and analytics that allows them to customise menus depending on user preferences.
Zomato, on the other side, has been pruning its non-food verticals by closing down its grocery and nutraceutical businesses to concentrate extensively on the core food business.
