Corporate-backed venture firm and incubator Rocket Internet built up the size of Global Online Takeaway Group, its collection of online food-based businesses, today with two significant investments.
The firm upped its stake in Germany-based food ordering service Delivery Hero to 39% today, investing €52m ($55m) to buy shares from Delivery Hero’s existing investors, and contributing Talabat, the Kuwait-based food delivery service it acquired for $170m last month.
Rocket Internet made a $328m equity investment and a $240m secondary investment in Delivery Hero in February this year, taking a 30% share.
Delivery Hero has not revealed which of its investors, which include retailer Tengelmann, Vostok Nafta, Insight Venture Partners, Kite Ventures, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Ru-net, Team Europe, Kreos Capital, Phenomen Ventures, Luxor Capital and Point Nine Capital, have sold shares to Rocket Internet.
Rocket Internet has also invested €37m in FoodPanda, the Germany-based online food delivery service also known by HelloFood, as part of a €104m ($110m) funding round, and acquired the shares held by another of its subsidiaries, Latin American Internet Group. It now holds a 52% share of FoodPanda.
FoodPanda has now raised approximately $218m since it was founded in 2012 from investors that also include Falcon Edge Capital, Phenomen Ventures, Kinnevik and Imena Holdings.
Rocket Internet has elected to build up the Group further by contributing its 11.4% stake in Turkey-based online takeaway service Yemeksepeti.
Together with the Group’s stakes in Spain-based La Nevera Roja and Italy-based Pizzabo, it works with more than 142,000 restaurants across 71 countries. The news was revealed on the same day as the merger of two other Rocket Internet entities, e-commerce companies Lamido and Lazada.