Saurabh Kochhar, Founder and CEO of the food-ordering application company, told reporters here on the sidelines of an ASSOCHAM event that this year the company would look for fresh investments.
In April 2015, Foodpanda raised $110 million from Goldman Sachs and Rocket Internet, for its expansion in India. “Currently, we are present in 150 cities and connected to over 10,000 restaurants, and is not looking for further geographical spread, but consolidation through investment in technologies, people and the last-mile connection,” Kochhar said.
Foodpanda is also introducing new food-delivery concepts such as ‘meal package’ to reach more people.
Kochhar, however, did not mention the quantum of investment and indicated that fresh investment would be pumped in this year.
Foodpanda has so far obtained investment worth $310 million. “We are amply funded as of now.” However, for improving service delivery and reaching a higher turnover scale, the online firm would invest more.
He informed that in the past four years, the company has grown 10 times in size and in 2015, turned every order operationally profitable.
“We aim to make EBITDA profit in 2019.” He claimed that on a single day, recently, Foodpanda reached its peak orders at 73,000.
Foodpanda’s own meal package, now available in Bengaluru and Gurgaon, will soon be available in Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune. It is also considering having own kitchens for the meal packages.
“In Kolkata, where we still do not have our own delivery system, we are putting in place one shortly.”
Foodpanda is also focussing on hygiene and custom-made food.
Kochhar said the food-delivery service segment in the country has been seeing a shakeout. “This will stop mushrooming of ‘me-too’ outfits,” he said.
Source: Business Line