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With competition getting stiffer in the online food delivery and discovery space, FoodPanda has raised $100 million in a fresh round led by Goldman Sachs. Existing investors, including Rocket Internet SE, also participated.
With this, FoodPanda has so far mopped up over $310 million since its launch in 2012. As part of the financing round, Goldman Sachs Investment Partners will join the advisory board of FoodPanda.
FoodPanda, which has presence in 40 countries across the world, is gearing up with its expansion plans as Indian company Zomato firms up plans to enter the food delivery business globally.
Zomato is currently into restaurant search but has recently started a pilot for food delivery in the Indian market. It plans to scale it up globally in 21 other countries. For this, the company has made about eight strategic acquisitions globally. This also means that Zomato would be the biggest competitor for FoodPanda.
Recently, Zomato and taxi-hailing app Uber entered into a partnership to enable users book cabs to the restaurant they are planning to eat at. The feature has been made available to Zomato users in London and South Africa, and will now be rolled out to users in other key markets.
Recent buysFoodPanda, on the other hand, has strengthened its presence in the Indian market with two acquisitions – Tastykhana (2014) and JustEat (2015). The company is also growing in other markets such as Mexico, Russia, Brazil, Eastern Europe and South-East Asia.
According to Ralf Wenzel, Co-Founder and CEO of FoodPanda group, the company will use the recent investment to expand its own delivery activities and improve customer experience and last-mile delivery, especially in emerging markets like India.
“We are very happy about the recent support from Goldman Sachs, with its deep expertise in online marketplaces, and which, together with our renowned group of investors, will allow us to build the leading mobile food delivery marketplace in emerging markets targeting over three billion consumers.
“The emerging markets represent the largest opportunity in online food delivery and we are committed to creating the most convenient way for ordering and delivering food,” said the CEO.
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