Just-Eat, the online food ordering giant of Europe, is continuing its rapid expansion, working out a partnership / acquisition deal with Alloresto.fr, the online food delivery leader in France. Just-Eat CEO Klaus Nyengaard, who blogged about the deal here, tells me it took over a year to work out the arrangement.
In an initial phase, Alloresto will be run as a joint-venture between the two companies, and after ‘a few years’ Just-Eat will acquire the remaining shares. Sebastien Forrest, founder and CEO of Alloresto, will continue to head the company as part of the deal terms.
Nyengaard declined to disclose the financial terms of the transaction, but says Just-Eat will invest “several tens of millions of euros” in Alloresto over the next few years, including the earn-out part of the deal. The official press release says Just-Eat will invest 20 million euros in the business over a period of three years.
He also tells me Alloresto is almost as big as Takeaway.com, its freshly-funded rival in Europe, in terms of revenues. Alloresto has partnered with 2,500 restaurants in France, one of the largest food delivery markets in Europe.
Just-Eat is now operational in 16 countries, and boasts 500-600 employees. In March 2011, the company raised $48 million to bankroll this type of deals and scale globally.