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The acquisition comes almost two months after Zomato backed out of its proposed investment in Pickingo

Indian on-demand hyperlocal delivery startup Shadowfax has acquired smaller rival Pickingo for an undisclosed amount, reports The Economic Times.

The deal comes a couple of months after restaurant listing major Zomato, which is currently in the process of streamlining its business, backed out of its proposed investment in the startup. This had forced Pickingo to put its expansion plans on hold.

According to this report, Delhi-based Shadowfax has taken on board around 45 employees from Pickingo’s management and a few hundred delivery boys in a cash-and-stock deal.

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“Pickingo is one of the best teams in the industry and an immediate cultural and operational fit for us,” said Abhishek Bansal, CEO at Shadowfax. “At Shadowfax, we are trying to develop competency of completing deliveries in 30 minutes to an hour, and this deal will help us achieve our goals faster.”

“With strong technology and execution experience, both teams together are well placed to be the leaders in the hyperlocal space,” said Piyush Sharma, Co-founder at Pickingo.

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Pickingo, founded in December 2014, is a horizontal on-demand logistics company that manages deliveries for local merchants — who are increasingly moving their offline businesses online — through its mobile app-equipped riders. It also works with aggregators and marketplaces to manage its hyperlocal deliveries and returns.

In August, Pickingo had raised US$1.3 million in funding, led by Rehan Yar Khan of Orios Venture Partners, with participation from angel investor Zishaan Hayath.

Founded in 2015 by IIT Delhi alumni Abhishek Bansal and Vaibhav Khandelwal, Shadowfax is an on-demand hyperlocal merchant delivery service. The company charges its customers on a pay-per-delivery model based on distance and required service quality.

ShadowFax recently raised US$8.5 million in Series A round of funding from Eight Roads Ventures, the proprietary investment arm of Fidelity International. Shadowfax, which also counts Snapdeal founders and Powai Lake Ventures among its investors, focuses on food delivery.

It is also piloting e-commerce and reverse logistics to optimise its fleet.

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