Foodpanda is a mobile food delivery marketplace owned by Berlin-based company Delivery Hero SE and operates in about 50 countries. It is mostly active in Asia Pacific, Bulgaria and Romania. It is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. The service allows users to select from local restaurants and place orders via its mobile applications as well as its websites. The company has partnered with over 27,095 restaurants in 193 cities and works with over 15,733 delivery riders. The firm was acquired by Delivery Hero in early December 2016. Foodpanda's business in India was acquired by Indian cab-aggregator Ola on 29 December 2017 for an undisclosed amount.
History
Foodpanda was founded in 2012 by Lukas Nagel and Rico Wyder in South-East Asia and launched across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and in 2014 in the Philippines. Shortly after, global expansion of the Foodpanda business was lead by Ralf Wenzel, Felix Plog, and Ben Bauer. In February 2014, Foodpanda acquired its main rival in Pakistan, Eat Oye. It afterwards went through three management changes until 2019. In early 2015, the company made an all-stock purchase of TastyKhana.in, and the portal Just Eat India. Cofounder Rohit Chadda stepped down from roles at the company in the middle of 2015. In the end of 2015, the company laid off around 300 employees in India. By 2016, none of the original managing directors or cofounders were present with the company. Also at that time, there was a news expose alleging malpractice at foodpanda India, including non-payments to restaurants, and fake listings. Earlier that July, it was also revealed that the Singapore police raided their offices in the country for signs of malpractice concerning foreign interns. The company was based in Gurgaon at the time and active in 200 cities. By 2016, Rocket India was seeking a buyer for the company, listing relatively low prices such as $10 to $15 million. In November 2016 the company sold its Delivery Club business in Russia to mail.ru for $100 million. In December 2016, the Foodpanda group was acquired by the German competitor Delivery Hero. Also that year in December 2016, Foodpanda's once largest investor Rocket Internet sold Foodpanda to Delivery Hero. Foodpanda's business in India was acquired by Ola for all share deal on 11 December 2017, for the price of $40-$50 million. Ola said it would invest around $200 million additional funds in Foodpanda. On November 1 2017, Foodpanda re-branded from Orange to Pink with updated logo across all the countries. The rebrand follows its acquisition by tech giant Delivery Hero in December 2016, changing its brand color from orange to pink. The company began offering discounts to increase usage, and at its peak, in August 2018 it had around 200,000 daily orders. That dropped to around 5,000 daily orders by the middle of 2019. Ola suspended Foodpanda India's food delivery business in the middle of 2019 and fired most of its 1,500 "food delivery executives." The Foodpanda brand was said to continue in-house brands or "cloud kitchens." The cloud kitchen concept had started for the company when it had acquired the company Holachef in October 2018. In 2019, however, it only had three private label brands under its cloud kitchen business, among them FLRT and Great Khichd experiment.
Platform
Foodpanda processes and sends orders directly to partner restaurants, then delivers the meals by delivery riders to the customers. The service is available via its websites and mobile applications. It connects customers with restaurants that offer food delivery in their area and lets them choose, order and pay online. Customers order food by entering their postcodes on the site and browsing for food from a list of restaurants. They can create meals by browsing restaurant menus and selecting items they want to order before entering an address and proceeding to the checkout. Food panda sends out an SMS to confirm orders and their estimated delivery time. Foodpanda also has a review section on restaurant pages, where customers can comment on sales process, delivery, taste and overall impression of restaurants.
Investments
The company raised a total of $318 million in venture capital. Foodpanda raised $20 million in initial funding from Investment AB Kinnevik, Phenomen Ventures and Rocket Internet in April 2013. In September 2013, iMENA Holdings invested $8 Million. In February 2014, there was another funding round of $20 million from a group of investors, including Phenomen Ventures. On August 11, the company announced that it has collected another $60 million in financing from a group of investors. In March 2015, the company announced it has raised over $110 million from Rocket Internet, as well as other investors. Less than two months later, a group of investors, including Goldman Sachs, invested over $100 Million in Foodpanda.
International brands
The Delivery Hero group consists of multiple international brands. Foodpanda in Asia and Eastern Europe, Foodora in Europe, Australia and Canada, hellofood in the Middle East, Delivery Club in Russia, 24h in UAE, NetPincer in Hungary, Donesi.com in Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro, Pauza in Croatia, and Otlob in Egypt and foodpanda in Bangladesh & Pakistan.
Operations
Foodpanda is operating in 13 countries in Asia and Eastern Europe, including:
