Grubhub just bought a startup for $150 million to brings its food delivery to more college kids.
Grubhub announced Tuesday that it is acquiring Tapingo, a Tel Aviv-based startup that lets college students order food for pickup or delivery from on-campus restaurants. Grubhub is paying $150 million for the six-year-old startup, which currently serves over 150 college campuses including Ohio State, University of Kentucky, NYU and Georgia Tech. Tapingo says it has more than half a million active diners using its platform.
The move gives Grubhub a stronger foothold on college campuses, and a chance to acquire a new generation of customers.
"We value the college student population, many of whom we hope become life-long Grubhub diners with their first order," Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney said in a statement. "Tapingo makes students' lives easier, allows merchants to efficiently capitalize on online ordering, and enables colleges and universities to give students the technology they've come to expect."
Tapingo is just the latest company in a string of acquisitions Grubhub has made in the last two years. It acquired mobile payment platform LevelUp for $390 million in July, and prior to that spent $288 million to acquire Yelp’s Eat24 business and acquired food delivery service Foodler in June last year for $51 million.
Tapingo raised $36 million since its launched in 2012. Its backers include Qualcomm Ventures and Khosla Ventures.
"By joining forces with Grubhub's network of over 85,000 restaurant partners that offer online delivery and pickup, we'll continue to serve our loyal diners long after they graduate from college, which has always been our aspiration," Daniel Almog, Tapingo's co-founder and CEO, said in a statement.
Grubhub's stock was up around 3 percent following the news. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
