Arabnet Arabnet

On Sunday, Dubai-based ride-hailing app, Careem, announced that it had acquired RoundMenu and would start trialling food delivery services through the restaurant listing and reservation online platform this month.

Careem has operations in more than 90 cities across 13 countries. acquired the website and app for an undisclosed sum, and “will begin testing a delivery capability for RoundMenu customers on a small scale later this month,” it said in a statement to Reuters.

Founded in 2012, RoundMenu had raised $3.1 million in funding until now from HoneyBee Tech Ventures, BECO Capital, Horeca Trade and Middle East Venture Partners and is currently present in 18 cities across 9 MENA countries including Saudi, UAE and Egypt.

Among the different food delivery models, restaurant delivery is the oldest in the region. Kuwait-based restaurant delivery service Talabat, which was acquired by Rocket Internet in 2015, was founded in 2004 and was the first of its kind in MENA. Today, the region is home to more than 38 unique restaurant delivery startups across 10 different markets, with over 14 startups in the UAE alone. 

Although funding in restaurant delivery startups has slowed both globally and in the region, M&A activity among restaurant delivery startups has seen a massive increase. In the past three years, the region has witnessed the acquisition of 6 restaurant delivery startups in addition to this acquisition (24h.ae, Carriage, Talabat, Otlob, ifood.jo, FoodonClick and Hunger Station) by Berlin tech giant Rocket Internet as well as Rocket Internet-backed companies Delivery Hero and Jumia Group.