Russian Food, Grocery Delivery Company Yandex to Spend $1B to Buy Uber Stake

As part of a $1 billion cash deal, Russian-based Yandex will purchase Uber’s stake in its collaborative food, grocery and convenience store delivery efforts, as well as the companies’ joint self-driving business, according to a Tuesday (Aug. 31) Yandex announcement.

The funds will provide Yandex with Uber’s 33.5 percent indirect interest in the food and grocery delivery service Yandex.Eats, as well as the convenience store delivery service Yandex.Lavka and the on-demand delivery service Yandex.Delivery, according to the company’s press release. In addition, Yandex will take over Uber’s 18.2 percent interest in Yandex Self-Driving Group, making Yandex the sole owner of all four companies.

Yandex will also net an additional 4.5 percent interest – for a total of 71 percent ownership – in the newly organized MLU, which will focus on ride-hailing and car-sharing. As part of the deal, Yandex has a two-year option to purchase the remaining 29 percent of Uber’s ownership in MLU at an agreed-upon $1.8 billion price. That amount is projected to increase to $2 billion beginning in September 2023.

The acquisition is expected to be carried out in two stages, with the increased stake in MLU concluding by the end of the third quarter and the restructuring of Yandex.Eats, Yandex.Lavka and Yandex.Delivery anticipated to wrap by the end of this year. The Yandex-Uber collaborative efforts began in 2018, according to the news release.

Uber is not the only food delivery company that Yandex has partnered with. In July, PYMNTS reported on a collaboration between Yandex and Grubhub to bring robot delivery to university campuses. Grubhub has more than 250 partnerships with colleges throughout the U.S. The idea is to enable students to integrate meal plans with the Grubhub app.

Read more: Grubhub Teams With Yandex to Bring Robot Delivery to Universities

And in April, Yandex announced the expansion of its online grocery delivery service in Paris and London.

See also: Russia’s Yandex Expands eGrocery to Paris and London