Delivery Hero to acquire delivery app Baedal Minjok

Germany’s Delivery Hero, the operator of food delivery app Yogiyo here, is set to acquire its main Korean competitor Baedal Minjok, in the largest merger and acquisition deal of an internet startup in the country.

Woowa Brothers, which runs the Baedal Mijok app, announced Friday that Delivery Hero will become its majority stakeholder with a stake of 87 percent, while setting the value of the firm at $4 billion.

Delivery Hero is listed on the Frankfurt bourse and has been expanding its presence throughout Asia. 

Woowa Brothers CEO Kim Bong-jin will join Delivery Hero’s three-person global advisory committee as the biggest individual stakeholder of Woowa Brothers.

Kim will take charge of Woowa Brothers and Delivery Hero’s pan-Asia joint venture in Singapore, called Woowa DH Asia, in which the companies will hold a 50 percent stake each.

Woowa DH Asia will operate in 11 Asian countries, including Vietnam, where Woowa Brothers has existing business, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan, where Delivery Hero offers services.

Woowa DH Asia seeks to compete with Grab, UberEats and Gojek.

Once Kim Bong-jin becomes involved in the pan-Asian business, Chief Technology Officer Kim Beom-jun will step up as the new CEO to run Woowa Brothers’ internal operations. 

CTO Kim has a Ph.D. in information sciences and worked at NCSoft and SK Planet before joining Woowa Brothers in 2015.

The Baedal Minjok app will stay as it is for existing users in Korea, running parallel with Yogiyo.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)