Hyperlocal Delivery Startup Genie Acquires Food Delivery Startup Dinein

Chennai-based hyperlocal delivery startup Genie has acquired Chennai’s food delivery services startup Dinein in an all-stock deal.

The acquisition will help Genie strengthen its business by bolstering volume and adding customer touch points, the company said in a statement.

According to the deal, Genie will acquire the Dinein brand, its 25-member team, the delivery team, restaurant partner contracts, technology and its call centre business.

The acquisition will further add to Genie’s customer base, improve the experience for overlapping customers and help roll out their business offerings to restaurant partners.

Vinit Chordia, founder of Dinein, said, “With a focused food delivery service and a pure play logistics platform coming together, we aim to create a wholesome service that can help users get anything they need at their doorstep.”

Founded in 2012, Dinein was backed by Mithun Sacheti, founder of Caratlane.com (Now a part of Tata’s Tanishq). At present, Dinein works with more than 250 restaurants in Chennai for their food delivery and claims to enable more than 6000 orders in a month.

Commenting on the synergies between both the companies, Mithun Sacheti said, “The need gap is now clearly established for both brands, DineIn.in brought in restaurant partnerships and has great order value and Genie delivers the same with scorching pace and ease through its consumer-friendly interface. Makes for a winning consumer proposition.”

Genie: The Rise After The Downfall

Genie was founded in 2015 by Rakesh Mani, Sreekesh Krishnan and Parth Shah as a hyperlocal delivery platform.

In March 2017, the startup had to halt its services due to lack of funds. However, in May 2017, the startup resumed its operations after raising $250K in an angel funding round from High Net Worth Individuals based out of Dubai, Singapore and India.

The platform caters to customers in three verticals.

• It offers to pick up and drop facility for any consumer products across the city with their bike-based delivery service.
• Next, it helps customers in buying products from stores in Chennai and deliver them at the earliest. The products can vary from food, electronics to gifts and cakes etc.
• Genie for Business offers their logistics services to help businesses reach across the city. This in turn, helps them plan and execute their deliveries according to the ticket size, average distance, order scheduling and many other parameters.

“The ‘buy’ vertical forms 40% of the business, out of which food delivery is a considerable part and the acquisition helps us bring incredible restaurant partners, thus bolstering commission revenues from the food deliveries we do,” said Genie’s founders.

At present, Genie works with nearly 275 clients and manages more than 10,000 deliveries in a month with a team of 100 delivery boys.

India’s food delivery and take away market has been pegged at $19 Bn by Morgan Stanley. The rise in projections has been credited to the entry of major players like UberEats, Google Areo, Ola (with the acquisition of FoodPanda India), as well as the ongoing growth of multi-dimensional players like Zomato.

According to RedSeer Consulting, Indian food-tech industry suggested the possibility of a price war to kick in with the entry of Uber and Ola in the market. And this, in turn, is expected to increase daily order volume.

Further, the Indian hyperlocal delivery space is also getting crowded fast on account of busier lifestyles of the millennials and increasing smartphone penetration.

With the acquisition of Dinein, the hyperlocal delivery startup certainly has a chance to create a space for itself in the crowded food delivery space and expand its reach in Chennai. However, how far Genie will be able to go in presence of such deep-pocketed players, will be interesting to watch.