Food delivery segment entices food ordering platform foodpanda, starts with 5 cities

Enabling delivery seems to be a fair deal in Indian startup ecosystem for all and sundry. Over the past one year we see a slew of startups emerging in so called not sexy segment - delivery. While we see startups like TinyOwl, Swiggy among others trying to grab slice of food delivery market, biggies like Ola and Zomato also rushed to crack increasing trend of home delivery in urban India.The new entrant into food delivery space is foodpanda. The online food-ordering platform launched its own food delivery services to provide a seamless experience to its customers. Currently, it’s targeting restaurants, which have delivery services as well as those that have not yet stepped into this realm.

Saurabh Kochhar, CEO- foodpanda said,

Our plunge into the food-delivery segment is going to benefit both the customers as well as restaurants, especially those who do not provide delivery services. Although the service is recently launched, we have already clocked 20% orders and are hoping to escalate this figure to 60-70% by next year. By extending our services from the online stage of ordering to actual delivery at the consumer’s doorstep, we aim at augmenting our customers’ engagement with foodpanda and deliver to a larger set of partners.

The service covers five Indian cities - Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru and is planning to ramp up this number to 12, in the next 3 to 6 months. With its relentless endeavours and strategic business expansion, foodpanda is already the leading food-ordering and food-delivery portal of the country, and will continue to strengthen its position to foodpanda makes the process of ordering food for delivery fuss-free, fast and fun.

Earlier in November last year the Rocket Internet backed venture had acquired Delivery Hero’s TastyKhana in India.

Besides startups, Venture capitals are also showing great entrance in food delivery space. Mumbai-based food ordering app TinyOwl had raised Rs. 100 crore in its Series B round from Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital and Nexus Venture Partners. Bengaluru based Swiggy recently secured $2 million funding from Accel Partners and SAIF Partners.

Following the footsteps of rival Uber in the US, home grown app based taxi and autorickshaw aggregator Ola (earlier Ola Cabs) launched a food delivery feature called 'Ola Cafe' on its app. Currently, Ola Cafe is available only in some parts of Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad, enables food delivery to users in just 20 minutes.

According to an industry report by Technopak, with the growth in access to smartphones and internet, the home delivery business is all set to grow. Besides food delivery space, hyperlocal delivery startups are also going great guns. Gurgaon based hyperlocal delivery startup Grofers had raised $45 million in two separate rounds while mobile focused grocery delivery app PepperTap raised $12 million in last two months.

foodpanda entry into food delivery segment is well timed given Ola and Zomato already started exploring opportunities in the segment. The food delivery segment is having a ball and it would be exciting to watch this space.

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