Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce giant has acquired a food delivery startup, Ele.me to expand in China’s rapidly growing market for the local delivery of food and other services. The deal is worth around enterprise valuation of $9.5 billion for Ele.me, as reported by TechCrunch.
It must be noted that the same startup has earlier received an investment of $1.2 billion by Alibaba Group and its affiliate Ant Financial before being acquired by the Chinese e-commerce behemoth in full
Daniel Zhang, the chief executive officer of Alibaba Group, said in an official statement,
“As one of the most frequently used applications, food delivery is the single most important entry point in the local services sector. We can already see that a vast, multi-dimensional local instant delivery network formed through a food delivery service will be an essential piece of the commerce infrastructure.”
