The foodie merger: Delivery Hero acquires Foodpanda

Foodpanda is a global online food delivery marketplace with its headquarters in Berlin, Germany. It has been operating in more than 40 countries across four continents.

The service lets users select from local restaurants and place orders via the website or the mobile application.

Users of Foodpanda have the option of ordering cuisines from more than 35,000 restaurants worldwide.

Foodpanda bagged $20 million in funding from Investment AB Kinnevik, Phenomen Ventures and Rocket Internet in April 2013.

In September 2013, iMENA Holdings invested $8 million.

In February 2014, there was another $20 million from a group of investors, including Phenomen Ventures.

On 11 August 2014, the company announced a $60 million financing from Falcon Edge Management, a New York-based global hedge fund.

After its launch in 2012, Foodpanda expanded to 16 countries by the end of the same year.

This was followed by an expansion into seven more countries, to make a total of 23, by February 2013.

In 2014, the company achieved its target to reach another 40 nations in Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

In India, Foodpanda has added on a delivery service as opposed to being merely a marketplace, with the restaurants handling deliveries.

The five cities – Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad – where this service has been started are responsible for 20% of its total orders.

It aims to expand to 12 cities in the coming 6 months.

Rocket Internet's food delivery service, Foodpanda, has gorged up an astounding new round of funding led by Goldman Sachs.

Foodpanda, rolled out of Rocket's start-up franchise, has now raised $310 million total.

The company, which targets on emerging markets, says it will use the latest funding to "expand delivery and improve service" in its 40 markets.

Pisces EServices owned Foodpanda is all set to pick up stake in Mumbai-based food ordering app TinyOwl.

This will give it an edge over rival Zomato and strengthen its market position.

The deal is more of a financial investment rather than being a mere strategic one.

Foodpanda is also planning a strategic investment in a Bangalore based food-ordering app Swiggy.

Foodpanda has cut back on 15% of its staff strength in sales, marketing, vendor service, customer delight, business intelligence and call center due to increased automation and streamlining of the business model.

Foodpanda India CEO Saurabh Kochhar stated that the cut backs were a result of achieving 98% automation in order processing.

Zomato and TinyOwl also cut back on staff strength recently for automation.

Delivery Hero Holding GmbH is gearing up to acquire Foodpanda, consolidating two of the top food delivery start-ups from Germany.

Rocket Internet SE, which backs both the companies, said the blended business will "process more than 20 million orders a month and operate in 47 countries."

However, the details of the acquisition were not revealed by either of the companies.