Rocket Internet buys up Asia food delivery platforms

Founded in 2012, Foodpanda has raised more than $100 million and focuses on Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Customers select meals online from a number of local partner restaurants and the orders are processed directly to these establishments, which then make the deliveries.

The Foodpanda portfolio now includes: Just Eat India; Room Service, a Food Runner brand operating in Malaysia and Singapore; Philippines-based City Delivery, another Food Runner brand; EatOye in Pakistan; and Hong Kong-based Koziness, which was previously known as iDelivery. The company has also entered into a partnership with Thailand's Food By Phone.

The acquisition of Just Eat India follows that of local rival TastyKhana last November. Combined with Foodpanda's existing operations, the new additions offer coverage of 200 cities and 12,000 partner restaurants. Just East India started out as Hungry Bangalore in 2006 and was bought by Just Eat five years later.

By picking up Room Service and City Delivery, Foodpanda has completed a full acquisition of Food Runner. Originally known as Dealivery, the company spun out of DealGuru in 2012 with the backing of Digital Media Partners and Berlin-based Rebate Networks. It went on to purchase Asian Room Service, a supplier of meals in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and then City Delivery in the Philippines.

Foodpanda now claims to be the clear leader in these four markets (Food Runner has a franchise relationship in Indonesia), with over 1,200 partner restaurants.

EatOye, Koziness and Food By Phone have partnerships with 1,000, 500 and 650 restaurants, respectively, all based in sizeable urban areas. Foodpanda's overall footprint now covers 526 cities in 39 countries. Rocket Internet owns 55.2% of the company.

The move bears similarities with Rocket's consolidation of its emerging market e-commerce brands last year in partnership with AB Kinnevik. India's Jabong, Southeast Asia and Australia's Zalora, the Middle East's Namshi, Latin America's Dafiti, and Russia's Lamoda were combined under Global Fashion Group (GFG). The business is worth EUR2.7 billion ($3.5 billion) and has 4.6 million customers and over 7,000 employees.

Foodpanda is now part of its parent's Global Online Takeaway Group, which also comprises a 30% stake in Delivery Hero, acquired for EUR496 million, and 100% interests in La Nevera Roja in Spain and Pizzabo in Italy. Delivery Hero has a strong presence in numerous countries in Europe and Latin America, as well as in South Korea.

"Foodpanda continues to build on its strategy of complementing organic growth with selective investments. Asia has been our first regional market and with these new acquisitions we have taken another big step ahead," said Ralf Wenzel, co-founder and managing director of Foodpanda, in a statement.

Separately, Rocket announced a EUR130 million investment in HelloFresh, a grocery e-commerce business headquartered in Berlin and with offices in Sydney, New York, London and Amsterdam. Rocket committed EUR110 million in fresh capital and acquired EUR30 million in secondary shares, taking its ownership to 52%, while existing backer Insight Venture Partners contributed EUR10 million.

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• Topics
• Consumer
• Technology
• Southeast Asia
• South Asia
• Greater China
• Hong Kong (China)
• Southeast Asia
• India
• Pakistan
• TMT
• Rocket Internet
• buyout
• Consumer