foodpanda

In 2012, Lukas Nagel and Rico Wyder established Foodpanda in Singapore and later expanded in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand.[4][5]

A foodpanda deliverer in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand

In 2013, Foodpanda was launched in Bangladesh. With more than 20,000 employees operating in their company, Foodpanda is currently the largest food delivery service in Bangladesh.[6]

Foodpanda was launched in 2013 in Romania and expanded in 2014 in Balkans.[7] In 2021, the 22-year-old brand NetPincér became Foodpanda in Hungary.[8]

In February 2014, Foodpanda acquired its main rival in Pakistan, Eat Oye.[9] In 2014, Foodpanda expanded its service into the Philippines.[10] Shortly after, global expansion of the Foodpanda business was led by Ralf Wenzel, Felix Plog and Ben Bauer.

Cofounder Rohit Chadda stepped down from roles at the company in the middle of 2015. By 2016, none of the original managing directors or cofounders were present with the company.[11]

In December 2016, Foodpanda's once largest investor Rocket Internet sold Foodpanda to Delivery Hero.[12] On November 1, 2017, Foodpanda re-branded from Orange to Pink with updated logo across all the countries. The rebrand follows its acquisition by tech giant Delivery Hero in December 2016, changing its brand color from orange to pink.[13]

It afterwards went through three management changes until 2019.[12]

From 2019 to 2020, foodpanda expanded in Myanmar,[14] Cambodia[15] and Laos.[16]

Foodpanda was launched in Japan, in September 2020[17] covering 6 cities including Kobe, Yokohama, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka and Hiroshima and later Osaka and Kyoto.[18]

Delivery Hero announced in December 2020 that it would take control of South Korea's biggest food delivery app, Woowa Brothers Corp., at a $4 billion valuation.[17] As part of the transaction, Delivery Hero and the management of Woowa have entered into a strategic partnership regarding the operations of Delivery Hero and Woowa in the Asia Pacific region, and will be able to mutually leverage market insights, technology and operational best practices.[19]

foodpanda is operating in 12 markets in Asia and 3 markets in Europe, including:

• Europe
  • Bulgaria (Discontinued in August 2021)
  • Germany
  • Hungary
  • Romania
  • Slovakia
• East Asia
  • Hong Kong
  • Japan
  • Taiwan
• Southeast Asia
  • Cambodia[28]
  • Laos[29]
  • Malaysia
  • Myanmar
  • Philippines
  • Singapore
  • Thailand
• South Asia
  • Bangladesh
  • Pakistan

Foodpanda processes and sends orders directly to partner restaurants, then delivers the meals by delivery riders to the customers. The service is available via its websites and mobile applications.[30][4][31] It connects customers with restaurants that offer food delivery in their area and lets them choose, order and pay online/offline. Customers order food by entering their postcodes on the site and browsing for food from a list of restaurants. They can create meals by browsing restaurant menus and selecting items they want to order before entering an address and proceeding to the checkout. Food panda sends out an SMS to confirm orders and their estimated delivery time. foodpanda also has a review section on restaurant pages, where customers can comment on sales process, delivery, taste and overall impression of restaurants.[32][33]

Foodpanda raised $20 million in initial funding from Investment AB Kinnevik, Phenomen Ventures and Rocket Internet in April 2013.[34][35] In September 2013, iMENA Holdings invested $8 Million.[36] In February 2014, there was another funding round of $20 million from a group of investors, including Phenomen Ventures.[37] On August 11, the company announced that it has collected another $60 million in financing from a group of investors.[38] In March 2015, the company announced it has raised over $110 million from Rocket Internet, as well as other investors.[39] Less than two months later, a group of investors, including Goldman Sachs, invested over $100 Million in Foodpanda.[40] In December 2016, Delivery Hero announced a full acquisition of foodpanda for an undisclosed price.[41]

In August 2020, Thai pro-democracy protesters launched a boycott against foodpanda after it was found among the advertisers on Nation TV, a pro-establishment mouthpiece. The boycott forced the company to suspend all of its advertisements on the channel over concerns about its reputation.[42]

In July 2021, the company again suffered a widespread boycott in Thailand, after it tweeted that it would dismiss one of its drivers who was seen at the place where a royal portrait was set on fire during a pro-democracy protest on 18 July, saying his act breached its policy against "terrorism".[42][43] It was reported that around two million users in Thailand had deleted their accounts on the foodpanda application overnight.[44][45] Many restaurants also joined the boycott, announcing their withdrawal from business partnership with foodpanda.[46] The company later apologised, stating that it supports free speech and would not dismiss the driver.[43]

In July 2021, the company experienced protests in the Philippines over allegedly unfair wage policies among its riders. Shortly before the protests started, at least 30 of its riders were reportedly suspended for 10 years.[47] The company later apologized for the suspensions, claiming that they happened due to technical glitches in their riders' software.[48]

In October 2021, the company in Malaysia landed itself in hot water after several of its vendors claim that the service charges them excessively high commission rates as well as other hidden fees. Some vendors have even gone ahead and terminated their accounts with the service after a revelation of a compilation of more than 70 screenshots of Facebook posts and pictures of invoices from foodpanda vendors who claim that they are being charged a hidden fee which results in a zero return of sales. [49]

In November 2021, some foodpanda workers in Hong Kong striked, denouncing exaggerated monthly income promises and other problems.[50]

• Keane, Jonathan (November 17, 2020). "As The Pandemic Evolves, Foodpanda Says Delivery Is ‘More Prominent In Everybody's Thinking’". Forbes. Retrieved February 21, 2021
• Pillai, Sharanya (February 4, 2021). "foodpanda to expand grocery delivery to Japan, South-east Asian frontier markets". The Business Times. Retrieved February 21, 2021
• Koswaraputra, Dandy (October 3, 2016). "Indonesia's foodpanda closes down after being defeated by newcomers". The Jakarta Post. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
• 港股策略王 (2016). 港股策略王: issue 094 毫子股 高山行教你點揀股. 94 (in Chinese). Retrieved June 21, 2017.
• Борисов, С. (2017). 500 лучших бесплатных приложений для платформы Android (in Russian). ЛитРес. p. 198. ISBN 978-5-457-61332-4. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
• "foodpanda: În perioada sesiunii studenţii comandă cartofi prăjiţi, ciorbă de văcuţă şi burgeri". Ziarul Financiar (in Romanian). Retrieved June 21, 2017.

• Official website
• Delivery Hero Tech Blog