Last week Chernovetskyi Investment Group (CIG), a Ukrainian investment company, announced that its portfolio company Eda.ua has merged with Foodout, a major food delivery player operating in Baltics.
The deal between CIG and Foodout’s investor, the Gold Fish fund, has resulted in the creation of Foodout Group.
Neither the terms nor the amount of the deal have been disclosed, but CIG announced that the new company has been valued at “dozens of millions of euros.”
The Ukrainian group has invested an additional €1 million to fuel Foodout Group’s further expansion across the region.
The new group is presented as “one of the biggest food delivery services in Eastern Europe.”
“In addition to the Ukrainian market, where Eda.ua is currently active, the company will operate in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Iran. The service will also be launched in Belarus in the nearest future,” CIG stated.
Thus, the new company covers six countries totaling 140 million inhabitants.
Local and international food delights can be ordered for a few US dollars via the Eda.ua platform
Towards regional consolidation
Furthermore, CIG announced “preliminary agreements” to merge with several leading food delivery players in five other countries of the region.
“We clearly see how to build the biggest regional player in the next 2-3 years”, said CIG Managing Partner and Foodout Group board member Volodymyr Kryvko.
“We believe that the food delivery and takeaway business is [entering a] consolidation phase. We think that M&A in markets with a clear [leader] is the smartest way [to secure] investors’ ROI,” said Tomas Martunas, Gold Fish Managing Partner Foodout Group board chairman.
Eda.ua is a Ukrainian food delivery online service partnering with over 1,500 local restaurants. The merged company has made 1,7 million deliveries more than 30 cities in six countries from some 4,000 restaurants, according to Gold Fish.
CIG is backed by Leonid Chernovetskyi, a wealthy Ukrainian businessman and former Kyiv (Kiev) mayor.
Gold Fish, a fund with Baltic roots, presents itself as a network of successful European and African entrepreneurs investing in “frontier markets,” with a focus on “disruptive e-commerce and mobile-first projects.”
