Germany’s Delivery Hero gobbles up South Korea’s food delivery app Woowa for $4 billion

Germany’s Delivery Hero is buying South Korea’s top food delivery app Woowa for $4 billion in world’s biggest food app deal. The deal, announced on Friday by Delivery Hero, is the biggest global play so far for a food delivery app, one of the hottest tech sectors around. Delivery Hero said the acquisition will enable it expand its “Asian operations through a strategic partnership with Woowa.” The deal, which is still subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the second half of 2020.

As part of the acquisition agreement, Delivery Hero will first acquire an 82-percent stake in Woowa before taking full ownership “over time”, it said in a statement. The Transaction is valued at an enterprise value of US$ 4 billion (or €3.6 billion) on a cash and debt free basis, before other adjustments.

With this deal, the combined company will be able to take on major rivals like Gojek, UberEats and Grab in Asia at a time of fierce competition and consolidation in the booming sector of online food delivery services.

Founded in 2010 by CEO Kim Bong-jin, Woowa is South Korea’s biggest food delivery platform, racking up some 30 million orders a month. Kim Bong-jin said teaming up with Delivery Hero would allow it “to facilitate expansion in Asia, as well as to further penetrate the high potential Korean market”.

Founded in 2011 by CJ Foo, Claude Ritter, David Bailey, Kolja Hebenstreit, Markus Fuhrmann, Nikita Fahrenholz, Niklas Ostberg, and Tracy Richardson, the Berlin, Germany-based Delivery Hero is a network of online food ordering sites with over 100 restaurant partners, operating in 21 countries and with over 73,000 restaurant partners.

Delivery Hero operates in Germany, UK, Austria, South Korea, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Australia, Switzerland, China, India, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Panama, and Puerto Rico. The Group has more than 1000 employees globally, with 400 working from its Berlin Headquarters.

Delivery Hero has received $523 million in investment in 2014 alone with investors including Insight Venture Partners, Luxor Capital Group, Kite Ventures, Team Europe, ru-Net, Tengelmann Ventures, Point Nine Capital, Vostok Nafta, and Phenomen Ventures.