Online food ordering service Foodpanda, backed by Rocket Internet, has become profitable in two large regions it operates in – Central and East Europe and the Middle East Asian countries. Zomato had also become profitable in 6 regions this year, including the Middle East countries.
In the Middle East, Foodpanda has confirmed the acquisition of Hungerstation, a Saudi Arabia-based online food-delivery startup. Middle East operations were started in 2013, under the name of HelloFood, and have become profitable after nearly 3 years. It also operates under the name of 24h in UAE and Otlob in Egypt.
“Along with our other businesses in the Middle East, Hungerstation and Hellofood consolidate our market leadership in the region and we are proud to have achieved overall profitability just three years after launch,” said Ralf Wenzel, CEO – Foodpanda.
The Berlin-based company has also become profitable in Europe region, where it operates under multiple names in multiple countries, for example NetPincer in Hungary, Donesi.com in Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro and Pauza in Croatia.
This makes the food delivery service profitable in two of the three large regions it operates in. In Asia, there are still a few hiccups but with the company hopes to increase its market share in these countries.
Profitability in Asia?
Ralf Wenzel says that they’re the market leaders in 23 out of 24 countries the company has operations in, and are predicting profitability in South East Asian countries in the next couple of months. Foodpanda received 20 million funding in 2015, and the profits from Middle East and Europe can be used to strengthen ties in South East Asia.
Foodpanda had announced the acquisition of delivery.com’s operations in Hong Kong to become to market leader in Hong Kong. The number of customers in every Asian country have been increasing at a fast pace, and Foodpanda just needs to ensure it retains the existing ones.
The company also mentioned that the profits will be used to drive sales in the European and Middle East countries, while also ensuring the Asian countries become profitable soon. In India, Foodpanda recorded a loss of Rs. 36 Crores on a revenue of Rs. 4.8 Crores, in FY 2014-2015.
The data above does not give a very pretty picture of Foodpanda’s operations in India, and even though the company is taking steps to optimize its operations, the results are nowhere close to as expected.