Consolidation in the world of on-demand food ordering and delivery continues apace. Today, Just Eat Takeaway — the European company that only just got its own $7.8 billion merger approved by regulators in April of this year — officially announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Grubhub in the U.S. for an enterprise value of $7.3 billion.

The company said the combined operation — which processed 593 million orders in 2019 — will have over 70 million combined active customers globally.

Under the terms of the deal, Grubhub shareholders will be entitled to receive American depositary receipts (“ADRs”) representing 0.6710 Just Eat Takeaway.com ordinary shares in exchange for each Grubhub share, representing an implied value of $75.15 for each Grubhub share (based on the undisturbed closing price of Just Eat Takeaway.com on June 9, 2020 of €98.602), the companies said. This gives Grubhub a total equity consideration (on a fully diluted basis) of $7.3 billion.

Matt Maloney, CEO and founder of Grubhub, will join the Just Eat Takeaway.com management board and will lead the combined group’s businesses across North America. Jitse Groen, CEO and founder of Just Eat Takeaway.com, will lead the combined business globally.

“Matt and I are the two remaining food delivery veterans in the sector, having started our respective businesses at the turn of the century, albeit on two different continents. Both of us have a firm belief that only businesses with high-quality and profitable growth will sustain in our sector. I am excited that we can create the world’s largest food delivery business outside China,” Groen said in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming Matt and his team to our company and working with them in the future.”

“When Grubhub and Seamless were founded, the online takeout industry didn’t exist in the U.S. My vision was to transform the delivery and pick-up ordering experience. Like so many other entrepreneurs, we started modestly – restaurant by restaurant in our Chicago neighbourhood. Today, Grubhub is a leader across North America,” Maloney said in a statement. “I’ve known Jitse since 2007 and his story is much like mine. Combining the companies that started it all will mean that two trailblazing start-ups have become a clear global leader. We share a focus on a hybrid model that places extra value on volume at independent restaurants, driving profitable growth. Supported by Just Eat Takeaway.com, we intend to accelerate our mission to be the fastest, best and most rewarding way to order food from your favourite local restaurants in North America and around the world. We could not be more excited.”

The deal caps off a tumultuous period for Grubhub, which as Maloney noted was also created through a combination with another rival, Seamless. The company has been in play for months and had been in acquisition talks with Uber’s Eats division.

Uber was in talks with Grubhub on and off for about a year, according to a source familiar with the deal. Uber was still negotiating with Grubhub as of Wednesday morning. However, sources told CNBC’s Peter Faber that Uber was preparing to leave the deal over antitrust concerns. Ultimately, discussions broke down over a variety of concerns, including expected regulatory scrutiny, the source told TechCrunch.

Grubhub announced the tie-up with Just Eat shortly after Uber confirmed publicly that it was walking away from the deal.

Uber didn’t comment on specifics of the merger. However, an official statement indicates that Uber still sees consolidation of the food delivery industry as a path to profitability.

“Like ridesharing, the food delivery industry will need consolidation in order to reach its full potential for consumers and restaurants,” an Uber spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “That doesn’t mean we are interested in doing any deal, at any price, with any player.”

Investor reception to the deal was mixed. Grubhub shares rose as much as 9% in after hours trading before settling to about 6.2% above closing price. Just Eat stock fell 10.79%. Meanwhile, Uber shares, which dropped 4.81% to close at $34.83, fell another 1.38% in after hours trading.

Online food delivery has been a tough gig: on one hand, very popular with consumers, but on the other, an extremely commoditised and competitive business, where companies need to spend huge amounts of money to gain and keep customers.

One solution to that cycle has been to take out rivals and get better economies of scale on operations. This has been the route so far with Just Eat Takeaway and Grubhub, which combined say they will be profitable and can now focus on improving margins further.

But for the others in the space, the big question now will have to be: which players will consolidate next? In the US, in addition to Uber Eats, there is also Postmates and Doordash, while the European market has Deliveroo, in addition to a plethora of smaller players in both markets.

In response to VCs’ sudden rush to invest in more Black founders, Black venture capitalists and entrepreneurs have penned a bunch of advice on the best way to tap into talent. Among the strategies? Team up with Black firms already doing the work. Some firms have said that they’re going to turn to HBCUvc, a nonprofit organization that helps students from historically Black colleges and universities enter venture and tech.

In response to an outpouring of donations and support for HBCUvc, its founder Hadiyah Mujhid introduced a Donor Circle as one way investors can help in light of the overdue awakening.

“We’ve created the HBCUvc Donor Circle as an opportunity for supporters and individuals to engage in our work and join a long-term strategy toward racial equity in venture capital and technology,” she wrote in the post.

A donor circle member needs to make a gift of $1,000 or more to join the cohort, with an annual financial commitment. Donors will be able to engage with students in the HBCUvc community, work with other community members that are committed to practicing venture through anti-racist events and receive invitations to community events and summits.

“Joining the donor circle is the best way to get involved in HBCUvc. We cannot make significant progress in advancing racial equity without long-term financial commitment,” Mujhid wrote.

HBCUvc, which we first wrote about in 2017, currently holds a number of programs to help Black and Hispanic students enter the world of tech, from fellowships to micro-grants. It held a city-based internship program with Los Angeles, which connects students to venture capital firms in the area. The program is expanding to Chicago in 2021, the blog post notes.

HBCUvc’s first batch was 11 students from three universities. The Black and women-led team has since grown to support 123 students.

Just two weeks ago, HBCUVc was struggling to keep staff on deck due to the financial impact of COVID-19. Mujhid had to communicate that the “community they’ve built may formally cease without emergency funding.”

The organization and its work with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) has been amplified in recent weeks after the murder of George Floyd and international protests against ongoing police brutality in the United States. Some say HBCUs are a place for startups to go and look for diverse talent, and others think that the institutions could serve as LPs in funds and demand more racial equity.

“A piece of me wants to know why our voices were unheard and why it required such a horrific event to bring awareness and action to what should have already been a priority,” Mujhid wrote.

The singular sentence underlines a key message I’ve heard from the Black tech community in the past two weeks: It should not have taken a murder to start thinking about racial inequality. It’s why some doubt the intentions of companies and firms newly promising to increase diversity, beyond the opportunistic lip service.

Read the whole HBCUvc blog post here.

It may have entered the game later than other leading regions such as Europe and North America, but Latin America’s fintech industry is dynamic and growing fast. The sector was recently given a valuation of more than $150 billion and continues to expand year-on-year.

And while the longer-term impact of COVID-19 on the sector is yet to be determined, there’s no doubt that the demand for certain fintech solutions is on the rise. As smaller financial institutions across the region are under pressure to digitize, many are calling on fintechs to help them along this journey. In addition, a number of SMEs are seeking out digital loan services to help them get through the crisis.

The sector’s speedy expansion has meant that regulators in LatAm are under increasing pressure to enact legislation that addresses the murky waters of fintech activity, providing confidence to consumers and investors alike. However, regulation across the region must be careful to not quash innovation, while startups must figure out how to be agile in an environment which is becoming increasingly regulated. Let’s take a closer look at what impact regulation has had so far in LatAm, and what needs to happen to strike a balance between sector growth and public trust.

The development of fintech regulation across LatAm

Mexico is currently leading the way when it comes to fintech regulation in LatAm, thanks to its comprehensive 2018 fintech Law. The law covers most fintech activities, including crowdfunding, virtual wallet, transactions carried out with cryptocurrencies and open banking. In addition, Mexico has certain financial laws that regulate financial entities in their execution of transactions using fintech. The law also provides a regulatory sandbox for both licensed and non-licensed companies.

Brazil is the furthest ahead after Mexico, as it individually legislates crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending, while a special congressional commission is working on a broader legislative strategy. Brazil’s Central Bank also endeavors to make open banking legislation effective by the third quarter of 2020, which will pave the way for a thriving open banking ecosystem.