UberEats views India as a game changer for its business, with the food delivery unit of the world’s largest ride-hailing company expecting the country to drive its global growth and outpace other markets in attracting investment.

“We have gone global very quickly. So, the expansion has been quick everywhere but in India it has been doubly so,” Jason Droege, global head of Uber Eats, told ET. “India is the fastest growing market for UberEats in the world.”

Since Uber launched its food-delivery business in India a year and half ago, its growth here has been “incredible”, Droege said. It has grown seven fold in order volume in the past six months in India where it adds over 4,500 delivery partners each week, he said. Globally, it has 400,000 active delivery partners.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi had said in May that the food-delivery business was growing at over 200 per cent a year and had a gross booking run rate of more than $6 billion — which means as per the rate of booking in the first quarter, its gross booking value would be $6 billion for the year.

UberEats contributed about 13 per cent of Uber’s overall gross bookings in the first quarter of 2018 from 10 per cent during the same period last year. With Uber heading towards a $120 billion public offering next year, bankers and investors peg UberEats as a key contributor to the firm’s overall valuation and a model for its future growth. UberEats alone is pegged to be valued at over $20 billion, according to global media reports.

A large part of the disproportionate growth for the business globally has been driven by India over the last 18 months, since it launched here. “Globally we have 160,000 active restaurants(on the platform) but in India, each day we add over 100 restaurants. So, it is India really, that is the story of growth, additions, expansion at this stage and investments for UberEats. We would have been in a different place globally about two years ago,” said Droege, speaking on the sidelines of an eventmarking UberEats' partnership withCafé Coffee Day.

“We are investing more heavily in India than we have elsewhere. India is where a huge percentage of our focus is going towards,” he said.

While Droege declined to comment on the size of investments earmarked for India, he said a large part of the India investments would be geared towards building a larger selection of restaurants. It will also invest in product and engineering for India-specific needs.

Source: Economic Times (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/india-fastest-growing-market-for-ubereats/articleshow/66384076.cms)