OYO Rooms joined Food Delivery Market by acquiring Kitchen Startup FreshMenu for $60 Million?

Hospitality major OYO Rooms is in talks to acquire cloud-kitchen player FreshMenu for $30-40 million in a primarily stock-based acquisition.Swiggy, Zomato, Faasos and Ola had also held discussions to acquire FreshMenu, operated by Bengaluru-based Foodvista India Pvt. Ltd. However, the talks didn’t progress due to valuation mismatch, according to the report.What is FreshMenu?FreshMenu was founded in 2014 by Rashmi Daga.The startup provides a meal kit delivery service from its 35 cloud kitchens across Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi NCR.It claims to receive 13K orders every day with an average order value of $5 (INR 325) as of January 2019.In January, the startup, owned by Foodvista India Pvt Ltd, raised $1.64 Mn (INR 11.7 Cr) in a Series B1 funding round from US-based venture capital firm Lightspeed Ventures and its Indian unit Lightspeed India Partners.Lightspeed India Partners is a common investor for both OYO and FreshMenu.FreshMenu is said to be clocking 15,000-20,000 orders daily, according to sources.If the acquisition goes through, OYO plans to leverage its infrastructure of 1,70,000 rooms across the country besides its ability to manage labour workforce at scale.The Gurugram-based startup also has a number of skill-training institutes, which it can leverage to train chefs and kitchen staff.