Foodpanda To Integrate With Ola App, Aims To Add More Than 150 Mn Customers

Ola customers will soon be able to order food via the ridesharing platform as it will integrate online food delivery app Foodpanda in its cab-hailing app. The integration, starting with key markets, will be rolled out in October this year.

Foodpanda’s Indian business was acquired by Ola, which is backed by SoftBank, from its Germany-based parent firm, Delivery Hero Group, in an all-stock deal for $31.7 Mn in January. Foodpanda is a mobile food delivery marketplace headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and operating in 10 countries and territories. It was founded by Ralf Wenzel, Benjamin Bauer and Felix Plog in 2012.

Since its acquisition by Ola, Foodpanda India has been working as an independent entity. It claims to have witnessed a substantial increase in the number of food orders after the introduction of new offerings and upgrading its delivery logistics in India.

Foodpanda India recently claimed to have achieved a major milestone of registering three lakh orders per day. It now aims to add another 150 Mn customers in India. 

Foodpanda India said in a media statement that its technology centre, launched earlier this year, is working with the team at Ola to seamlessly integrate the food-ordering experience on the Ola app to further boost Foodpanda’s growth and enable its reach to millions of untapped consumers across the country.

Actively leveraging data sciences, the team is also working on customising the experience for users that will make their successive order journeys more intuitive and less time-consuming.

Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola, said, “Integration with Ola’s platform will help Foodpanda leverage these assets along with our deep understanding of Indian customers, large-scale distribution and logistical, and technical prowess.”

The development comes after Foodpanda India recently announced it will be hiring 60,000 delivery riders in the next couple of months, aimed at providing seamless delivery experience to customers with the hiring of riders.

Foodpanda India And Ola: Key Metrics

• With the integration on Ola’s app, Foodpanda aims to add more than 150 Mn Indian customers
• The food delivery company is currently present in over 150 cities, serving over 20K restaurants
• Ola claims to be currently present in 110 cities with more than 1 Mn driver partners and ferries 2 Mn people every day
• In FY17, Ola’s operating loss increased 32% to $543.5 Mn (INR 3,731 Cr) while its operating revenue more than doubled to $171.6 Mn (INR 1,178 Cr)
• The revenue turnover of Foodpanda India in FY 16-17 was $9.6 Mn (INR 62.16 Cr), a 64% jump over the $5.87 Mn (INR 37.81 Cr) revenue it achieved in FY 15-16

The Online Delivery Business In India

Inc42 had earlier reported that Ola was looking to acquire foodtech startup FreshMenu and another similar startup — also a separate food entity.

Recently, Gurugram-based online restaurant discovery and food delivery platform Zomato acquired Bengaluru-based startup TongueStun Food for about $18 Mn in a cash-and-stock deal. As a part of the acquisition, Zomato plans to incorporate the capabilities of the TongueStun app within the Zomato app, which will provide a high-frequency use case for its users.

According to 2018 report by Statista, revenue generated in the Indian online food delivery segment amounts to $7,120 Mn. Also, the revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2018-2022) of 11.8%, resulting in a market volume of $11.137 Mn by 2022.

Ola’s biggest competitor, Uber, launched its food deliver app UberEATS in 2017. Uber Eats is currently present in over 190 cities across India and is the biggest food delivery business is outside China. The company claims to registering 50% monthly growth.