Mail.Ru Group, the LSE-listed Russian Internet giant, has launched a subsidiary to invest in foodtech, the business publication RBC reported last week, citing exchanges with group representatives.
Dubbed Mail.Ru Foodtech Ventures, the subsidiary may invest in “any startup related to food and technology,” a Mail.Ru representative told RBC. This includes online restaurant booking, subscription-based food delivery, deployment of vending machines, and others.
The subsidiary will also support the group’s existing portfolio companies. Over the past 18 months, Mail.Ru Group acquired food delivery startups ZakaZaka and Delivery Club (the latter for $100 million in an all-cash transaction), and took part in a $1.6 million round of funding for Instamart, a Moscow-based startup that organizes food deliveries from offline retail outlets.
Mail.Ru Group has partnered with Mamafood, a developer of automated culinary kiosks, to help Delivery Club deploy some 500 such kiosks Moscow business centers under the DC Daily brand name.
Yandex, Mail.Ru Group’s key competitor, is also consolidating positions on the market. A dedicated subsidiary, ‘Yandex.Eda,’ aims to group the company’s food deliver services under one umbrella, as announced in January this year. These services include, in particular, the Russian division of UberEATS and the food delivery service Foodfox, which Yandex.Taxi acquired in November last year.
Yandex.Eda is part of the holding structure which has been formed as the result of Yandex’s merger with Uber. It will control.
Another player active on the Russian food delivery market is Mitsui, which repeatedly invested in ChefMarket. Meanwhile AddVenture, an early investor in Delivery Club and ChefMarket, recently put $5 million in Moscow startup Grow Food.
The company is reported to be willing to both invest in development and fully acquire start-ups. Mail.Ru will also be developing the foodtech projects it has purchased before.
