Uber to debut in the food delivery space with UberEATS

The ride share firm Uber has decided to launch its food delivery space through its UberEATS service. The platform has already started to onboard restaurant partners to create a network. The food delivery service is expected to be a different entity from the ride sharing firm, and will have different management. It has been hiring city general managers, city-level restaurant operations managers as well as branding and sales heads across six different cities.

The food delivery platform will be headed by Manan Javeri. Allen Penn, the firm’s Asia Pacific head, explained about the move and said that “We are currently in the process of setting up a team dedicated to the UberEATS business in India, this includes internal transfers, primarily experts in marketplace management as well as external hires. From a hiring perspective, we are looking at bringing some of the best talent in the restaurant industry, including successful entrepreneurs, people with experience in logistics management and various other aspects of the food delivery business”.

UberEATS is venturing into the market at a time when other online food delivery startups such as Swiggy and Foodpanda are raising funds to strengthen their foothold in the segment. Google has also launched its hyperlocal services and food delivery app Areo which passes on leads to partners such as Faasos, Freshmenu, UrbanClap and others in Bengaluru and Mumbai. It will be interesting to see how the market reacts to the new entrant as Old has started a similar service in 2015, but closed it within a year.