Uber Technologies Inc., primarily known as one of the major cab aggregators, has agreed to sell its food delivery service Uber Eats to rival Zomato.
In an email sent out to its users, Uber Eats states, "We have announced today that Zomato has acquired Uber Eats in India. As such, you will no longer be able to order from Uber Eats in India, but you will be able to enjoy your favourite meals with exciting offers tailored for you on Zomato. You can still get rides via the Uber app, which remains active and available. And you can still use Uber Eats if you're traveling outside India. Until then, we hope you will enjoy many more tasty moments and discover great restaurants around you on Zomato."
This statement confirms that Uber Eats is shutting down operations in the country entirely, although you can still use the Uber app for cab booking as usual.
As per ET, Zomato has acquired Uber Eats for around $350 million (Rs 2,485 crore). The report also claims that Uber will get about 10% shareholding in Zomato as a part of the deal.
The Uber Eats acquisition comes after Zomato's latest fundraising, where Ant Financial pumped in $150 million at a $3 billion valuation. Uber went public last year and had been underperforming, hence downsizing its loss-making units and geographies.
Uber Eats has been under consistent monetary investigation soon after its roll-out in the country, and especially, after a year of testing waters. As per regulatory disclosures made in India, Uber's projected operational loss was Rs 2,197 crore in its food delivery business for the five months through December 2019.
