BENGALURU/MUMBAI: Taxi aggregator Ola has bought Foodpanda India from its German parent Delivery Hero group in a stock deal pegged at about $40 million, re-entering a resurgent food-delivery market that has matured and become more competitive in the past year.SoftBank-backed Ola will also invest $200 million in Foodpanda India, as it takes on rival UberEats and incumbents Zomato and Swiggy in one of the most-coveted and high-frequency consumer markets in India.The companies did not disclose the exact financial details of the deal, which is seen as a distress sale for the food-delivery firm.Foodpanda India handles about 30,000 orders a day in about 150 cities, and UberEATS India about 10,000 orders a day in seven cities, according to analysts, which would give Ola ?an upper hand over its primary rival through its latest acquisition? in the food-delivery business. UberEATS said the estimate of 10,000 orders a day was “grossly inconsistent” with market realities but declined to disclose the average number of daily orders the platform handles.The bigger challenge for Ola's food-delivery business will come from Swiggy, which handles about 140,000 orders a day in India. Zomato handles about 100,000 orders a day in India and the UAE.Saurabh Kochhar, chief executive of Foodpanda India, will be replaced by Ola founding partner Pranay Jivrajka as interim CEO, the cab aggregator said in a statement.After two years of flagging business, food-delivery has once again emerged as the frontier to capture for consumer internet companies, with a wave of consolidations resurrecting hope for the sector. The food-delivery business offers one of the highest frequency rates when it comes to transaction volumes along with sizeable order values.Both these metric will be crucial for Ola, which shut its earlier food-delivery venture, Ola Cafe , in March 2016 but has continued to look at diversified offerings in a bid to outpace Uber in digital transactions.“Ola will eventually become an integrated services network, where Ola Money will be linked to not only booking cabs or paying for meals at restaurants, but also a host of other services including food-delivery and possibly a re-entry into the grocery segment in 2018,” said an analyst, speaking anonymously.The food-delivery landscape in India has seen a 130% rise in order volumes, which is expected to touch 370,000 orders per day this year, up from about 160,000 in 2016, according to estimates from Redseer Consulting.“For Ola, the synergy is the customer base that this acquisition gives, along with a fairly decent number of restaurants on board and some brand recall value though miniscule,” said an investor in the food-delivery space, declining to be identified. “Through this deal Ola will easily take on UberEATS, which is failing to pick up traction for varied reasons… But whether Ola can cement a significant position in the food-delivery space through Foodpanda is questionable.”Delivery Hero has been looking to sell Foodpanda India almost ever since it acquired the global Foodpanda business from Germany’s Rocket Internet in December 2016. Foodpanda India had held talks with Faasos and Zomato for a possible merger, with Delivery Hero offering to invest sizeable capital in the merged business if a deal went through, according to two people aware of the discussions. However, the talks fell apart with Foodpanda’s huge overhead costs making the transaction unattractive, one of them said.This year, market leader Swiggy has invested aggressively to maintain its lead, while Zomato and Foodpanda underwent a clean-up gaining significant growth in revenues and order volumes while limiting their pace of losses.Foodpanda India has been looking to trim expenses and build a robust balance sheet. The delivery firm, which works with 15,000 restaurants in India, shrunk its losses by almost 70% last year, making it a sweet purchase for Ola.Foodpanda India’s revenue grew 64% to Rs 62.16 crore in fiscal year 2016-17, while losses fell to Rs 45 crore from Rs 142.6 crore, show documents filed with the Registrar of Companies and accessed by research platform Tofler.“Foodpanda has come to be a very efficient and profit-focused business over the last couple of years,” said Bhavish Aggarwal , CEO of Ola, in a statement. “Our commitment to invest $200 million in Foodpanda India will help the business be focused on growth by creating value for customers and partners. With Delivery Hero’s global leadership and Ola’s platform capabilities with unique local insights, this partnership is born out of strength.”While Ola Cafe, which was built with an investment of $20-30 million, did not yield significant results for the ride-hailing aggregator, analysts expect that the $200-million infusion into Foodpanda India will give Ola a sizeable entry in the food-delivery space this time around.