Roadrunnr Acquires TinyOwl And Releases Food Delivery App

It is official. The Bengaluru-based hyper-local delivery platform, Roadrunnr has acquired TinyOwl and has rebranded itself as ‘Runnr’ and is targeting the online food delivery service with the launch of this new service. After months of rumours and speculation, the company has officially transitioned into the food delivery sector with the acquisition of TinyOwl and with the release of its food ordering and delivery app. The service currently operates in South Mumbai with over 150 restaurants in tow, with further expansion planned in the coming months.

Launch Of Runnr

In a statement released by the company, it said, “Runnr’s strengths lie in technology and efficiency of operations that the company has developed over the last one year. After its acquisition of TinyOwl, the company has decided to reposition itself as a customer centric platform and launched a full integrated app called Runnr which is now available on the iOS and google play store.” The merger became official last week with over 100 people from TinyOwl joining the new service launched by both companies. According to Mohit Kumar, co-founder and chief executive officer of Runnr, 30 members of the overall staff were engineers and designers while the others are part of the call centre and data analytics staff. 

Food Delivery

The app, which was launched as part of the new service, is currently operating in South Mumbai with 150 restaurants as part of its database. “We aim to set new benchmarks for food delivery in India. Backed by a strong and integrated team, this application comes with complete order management, easy booking, live order tracking and on demand delivery,” said Kumar. The new service will provide direct competition to existing players in the online food delivery sectors such as Swiggy, Zomato Order and Foodpanda. 

Emerging Competition

Roadrunnr, the Bengaluru-based startup, was launched early last year with the prime focus on B2B delivery. Later, the company switched its services to e-commerce delivery, with the focus on hyper-local deliveries for other startups. The company was backed by Sequoia Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, and Apoletto Asia. TinyOwl, who were also part of Sequoia Capital’s portfolio, came under heavy fire recently with layoffs of employees and was forced to shutdown its services in all cities except Mumbai. The merging of two companies to start a new service could provide a blueprint for other struggling startups who could pursue similar avenues to gain traction in the growing startup scene of the country.