(This story originally appeared in on Jan 28, 2016)

BANGALORE: Rocket Internet backed Foodpanda is desperately searching for a buyer for its troubled India operations at a lowly price tag of $10-15 million, multiple sources familiar with the development told TOI. The Samwer brothers-led Rocket Internet's interest in its Indian portfolio has been waning with most of its flagship firms, including FabFurnish and PrintVenue being put on the block.“Foodpanda has held talks with its competitors in India, who have been pitched with a sale value of $10-15 million,“ a source close to the development told TOI.Despite the low valuation the food ordering platform has not found a buyer yet, signalling that it may decide to shut India operations soon.“Both Zomato and Swiggy have been approached for a buyout, besides one larger horizontal company. But, Rocket is yet to garner keen interest from possible suitors for Foodpanda,“ another source said.Zomato's founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal did not respond to calls by TOI while Swiggy's co-founder Nandan Reddy refused to comment. When contacted, a spokesperson of Rocket Internet told TOI in an email, “We don't comment from Rocket's side to rumours about Foodpanda.“Last year, Foodpanda raised more than $300 million from the Berlin-based Samwer brothers and Goldman Sachs for its global business.That's when it invested heavily in the Indian market, becoming one of the largest players in the online food ordering segment. In order to ward off rivals Zomato and the likes of Swiggy and TinyOwl, Foodpanda acquired TastyKhana and Just Eat in India. But, it has since been on a downhill slide.Reports of an alleged fraud and systematic discrepancies in Foodpanda's operations emerged last year. The company then laid off 300 people as the overall food delivery market hit a rough patch.The food technology sector, which saw a rush of earlystage funds over the past year, is in the midst of a major restructuring, resulting in hundreds of job cuts. Zomato and TinyOwl together fired more than 500 people and have been scaling down operations. Gurgaon-based Zomato recently stopped taking online food orders in four Indian cities.