EatOye! gobbles up Urbanite

The pioneer of online food ordering in the country, Urbanite.pk has been acquired by EatOye! which is itself a subsidiary of Food Panda. The online food ordering market in the country has been white hot in the past two weeks with mergers and acquisitions in quick succession.
On 6 February, Business Recorder reported the acquisition of the indigenously developed EatOye! by FoodPanda which is one of the companies operated by the German e-commerce giant, Rocket Internet (see: Food Panda Eat(s)Oye!).
At that time, BR Research had informed that further consolidation in the market would be observed within days. On Monday, co-founder of EatOye! Rai Umair confirmed to BR Research that the company’s acquisition of Urbanite has been signed. While he declined to comment on the transaction amount, he confirmed that the acquisition “includes the customer base and domain of urbanite.pk”.
To put things into perspective, it is noteworthy that the online food ordering industry is estimated to be worth about $15 million per annum, according to industry sources. The Rocket Internet-backed companies that have come together since the start of this month now collectively account for about 90 percent of the current market.
Independent observers such as Syed Sumair at PakStarted opined “the latest transaction has placed this combined entity at the forefront of the domestic online food ordering and restaurant reservation market. They should be able to considerably improve market outreach and restaurant coverage given the sound financial backing of Rocket Internet.”
The industry analyst pointed out that “Urbanite is a smaller player but it had focused on restaurants that do not have their own logistics for food delivery. This acquisition now adds that expertise to the combined entity”.
Commenting on the deal, founder of Urbanite, Ozair Bokhari stated that “the development will prove beneficial for urbanite’s customers” and expressed hope that the deal will open up further opportunities for emergent firms within the country’s online business sphere.
Taking the opportunity to inform about recent developments in the online portal, co-founder of EatOye! Nauman Sikandar informed that “customers can now order on the go using our mobile applications and can also pay online via credit cards.”
Following the transaction, the home page of Urbanite.pk is now redirecting to EatOye! Meanwhile the Food Panda portal is also operational. Company sources confirmed that both portals will continue to function under joint management.