New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS): Leading online food delivery platform Swiggy is set to acquire Times Internet-backed dining out platform Dineout for close to $200 million, reliable sources said here on Monday.

Dineout was also in talks with leading fintech platform Cred but Swiggy has apparently won the race.

Sources told IANS that Swiggy-DineOut talks are now in the final stage for an acquisition that will be in the range of $200 million (at the current valuation of Dineout).

Swiggy and Dineout did not immediately comment on the development.

Swiggy's closest rival Zomato is already in the dining out business.

Dineout was founded by Ankit Mehrotra, Nikhil Bakshi, Sahil Jain, and Vivek Kapoor in 2012.

Times Internet in 2014 acquired the dining out platform for an estimated Rs 60 crore.

The last two years of the pandemic severely hit the dining out industry in the country and Dineout business was also affected.

According to the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), in FY21, the Indian food services industry contracted severely leading to permanent closure of over 25 per cent of food business operators which resulted in job losses of nearly 24 lakh people.

"In FY21, the food services industry in India declined by 53 per cent and was estimated to be worth Rs 2,00,762 crore, compared to Rs 4,23,624 crore in FY2020," said Kabir Suri, President, NRAI.

Swiggy last month raised $700 million led by Invesco, which, the company said, will be utilised to scale its overall business.

At a $10.7 billion valuation, Swiggy joined the list of Indian decacorns (valued at $10 billion and above).

Swiggy also raised $1.25 billion last year.