Foodpanda’s Indian unit forays into ecommerce delivery to better revenues

Food tech startup Foodpanda’s Indian unit secured more than 150 crores of funding in last 12 months in eight different stages from Berlin-based parent Jade Gmbh and Co, reports Livemint.

The information was revealed in documents submitted to Registrar of Companies according to which the transactions took place between July 2015 and June 2016.

Notably, the news puts to rest rumors regarding the fate of Foodpanda that have been surfacing of late. A leading newspaper daily had reported that like its other businesses, Rocket Internet was looking to sell the Indian unit of Foodpanda.

Saurabh Kochhar, CEO of Foodpanda, not just denied any sale talks but also revealed that the startup was already operationally profitable in India since February this year, hence putting rest to any speculations regarding an impending sale due to performance issues.

In terms of expansion, Foodpanda recently joined hands with Ecom Express to enter door-to-door and e-commerce deliveries by using its delivery fleet during non-peak hours and find alternate sources of revenues from the same.

The company would be launching a pilot project in Delhi and Gurgaon in September which if successful will then be expanded to Pune, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.

According to Kochhar, “Food will always be our priority and our primary business. Such initiatives are aimed to improve the efficiency of the business across the lean times during the day as well.”

Notably, Foodpanda has a delivery fleet of 1,500 people which contains a mixture of payroll and part-time employees who come in peak hours for deliveries. Similarly, Ecomm Express also has a team of over 15000 delivery boys around the year. By catering to increasing demands of logistics and last-mile delivery of e-commerce companies, both companies expect to earn additional revenues.