Zomato acquires drone startup TechEagle; CFO Sameer Maheshwary quits
Online food ordering unicorn Zomato has acquired TechEagle Innovations, a startup working on drone tech. The motivation behind the acquisition is to use drone technology for food delivery in future.
It is an early stage for the company for building a future delivery system where users will expect drone delivery for the food they order, said Deepinder Goyal, CEO and founder of Zomato in a statement. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
At present, the company is in the process to design multi-rotor drones that can pick up a payload under 5 kg and set up drone delivery circuits. Robots will be an inevitable part of the future, he added.
Also Read: Govt launches registration portal ‘Digital Sky’ to fly drones
The acquisition will help the food tech firm achieve its drone-based food delivery in the country. TechEagle is three years old firm founded by IIT-Kanpur alumnus Vikrum Singh Meena. In May, Lucknow-based startup tested tea delivery system covering the distance of 10 km.
Delivery alone accounts for over 60 per cent of the company’s overall revenues. With a mere 3.5 million deliveries a month at the beginning of this FY, Zomato had claimed 22 million monthly order run rate.
The company has 54k restaurant partners and 1,5 lakh delivery partners in over 50 cities in India.
This month Zomato also began farm supplies to restaurant partners in Bengaluru through HyperPure. Currently, it delivers farm, staples, poultry and dairy products to about 300 restaurant partners in the city.
Meanwhile, Zomato continues to battle with exits of its senior executives. After COO Deepak Gulati and Samir Kuckreja leaving the firm, now its CFO Sameer Maheshwary has resigned within six months of his joining. In his absence, chief operating officer (COO) Gaurav Gupta would lead the finance team.
Recently, Zomato has also hired Durga Raghunath and Chaitanya Mathur for the posts of senior VP-growth and head of event business respectively.
Source: Entrackr
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