Daraz Bangladesh, a concern of Alibaba Group Holding announced that it is acquiring a leading Bangladeshi online meal delivery service HungryNaki. The announcement was made in a joint press conference held at Bangabandhu International Convention Center on Thursday.
However, HungryNaki will keep functioning as usual with all the existing employees and will operate as a separate brand with an independent food delivery platform owned by Daraz directly.
HungryNaki CEO and Co-founder AD Ahmad said, “This is an auspicious moment for all of us because this acquisition by Daraz proves that our e-commerce industry is in an optimistic state. Moreover, this is a positive sign for other local start-ups.”
For the Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, the deal makes a lot of sense, with growth opportunities at its home market shrinking and the Chinese government turning on its founder, Jack Ma.
Its e-commerce subsidiary in Bangladesh, Daraz, is the leading online marketplace in Bangladesh. Daraz provides access to 10 million products in more than 100 categories and delivers over 2 million packages every month across Bangladesh. It was acquired by Alibaba in 2018.
Alibaba also has a presence in Bangladesh’s highly-promising mobile financial services industry: Alipay, its mobile and online payment subsidiary, owns 20 per cent of bKash, the market leader.
Established in 2013, HungryNaki is the first on-demand food delivery company in Bangladesh. The company is serving more than 500,000 customers across Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet, Cox’s Bazar and Narayanganj through its network of over 4,000 restaurants in these cities.
