Hungry to expand: Zomato now helps deliver food to your house

Restuarant guide startup Zomato today announced that it invested in Gurgaon-based Pickingo and Mumbai-based Grab. The funding amounts are not disclosed. Zomato has also partnered with Delhivery, a logistics startup.

All three startups will help Zomato specialize in hyperlocal food delivery.

“We have unequivocally the largest restaurant base in India and we will work closely with Pickingo, Grab, and Delhivery to improve the last-mile delivery experience for users placing orders,” said Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal. “So far, restaurants have been delivering on their own, but with this partnership, we will also be able to target restaurants across the country that don’t otherwise deliver,” he says.

Pickingo, which manages deliveries for local merchants across six cities in India, has raised US$1.3 million so far. The eight-month-old startup manages deliveries for local merchants who are increasingly moving their offline businesses online through its app equipped riders. It also works with aggregators and marketplaces to manage their hyperlocal deliveries and returns. Currently, it operates a fleet of 700 delivery people across six cities in India.

Grab is a hyperlocal logistics service to restaurants, groceries, laundry services, pharmacies, and ecommerce firms, which has secured a total of US$1 million in investments. The two-year-old startup claims to have delivered 800,000 orders in seven cities and has 1,000 riders in its delivery fleet.

“This investment will not only infuse funds into the company but will also allow us to scale rapidly with Zomato’s online ordering business,” Pickingo founder Rahul Gill said.

Gobbling startups

In the past year, Zomato has acquired nine startups to further extend its global reach in the restaurant search space. This includes the acquisition of Urbanspoon, which gave Zomato a dominant position in Australia, Canada, and the United States. Zomato is making strides to move from being a search and discovery portal to a platform offering technology that helps restaurants connect more effectively with customers, with the launch of online ordering and cashless payments. It will soon launch table reservations and a point-of-sale system.

Zomato says it will launch online ordering in Dubai, Australia, and South Africa later this month. “We are in conversation with hyperlocal logistics firms in other countries,” says Deepinder.

Founded in 2008, Zomato has raised a total of US$163 million in funding and has a presence across 22 countries. Zomato’s core features include restaurant information such as scanned menus and photos, sourced by its feet-on-street team across cities it is present in globally. Users can review restaurants as well as create their own network of foodies for trusted recommendations.