Rocket Internet-backed Foodpanda spreads to 40 countries in less than two years

Foodpanda, a Rocket Internet-backed global, multi-location online food ordering marketplace, and its affiliated brand Hellofood have spread to 40 countries in 22 months with a year-on-year growth of 100 per cent, according to the company. It claims that since the beginning of this calendar year alone, the platform has managed to make a footprint in eight new countries that include Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Lebanon, Serbia, Kazakhstan and Uganda, with more to follow later in 2014. Till about a year ago, it was active in 20 countries.

"Getting to new markets quickly gives us a huge competitive advantage. We have great local teams in every country we operate in and we will continue to work hard to make our products available in even more countries and look forward to the opportunities ahead," said Ralf Wenzel, global managing director of Foodpanda.

Having partnered with more than 22,000 restaurants, it claims to be a global market leader in online food ordering space.

Founded in April 2012, Hellofood.com features location-specific listing of restaurants on its site. Users can check out menus, along with special offers, post that they can order and get food delivered to their homes. One can also search for restaurants according to cuisine, and/or by other parameters such as vegetarian/non-veg, healthy food, etc. The company helps restaurants increase sales through online and mobile platforms and also provides them with technology and analytics.

In India, Foodpanda is already in partnership with more than 3,000 restaurants like Pizza Hut, Subway, Nirula's, Faasos, Baskin Robbins, Ammi's Biryani, Mast Kalandar, etc, across 14 cities, including Delhi, Gurgaon, Chennai, Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Kolkata. Last year, the company had appointed Rohit Chadda as its second MD in India to serve as the product head for the Asia region.

Recently, Foodpanda also integrated restaurant reviews from OpenRice to help users check out food reviews for each listed restaurant on the platform. To date, the company has secured $48 million in venture capital funding from investors, including Rocket Internet, Investment AB Kinnevik and Phenomen Ventures. In the Indian market, the company competes with the likes of JustEat.in, HungryZone.com, DeliveryChef, Foodera.com, BigBite.com, Tastykhana.com and Yummybay.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)