Foodpanda to increase head count by fourfold in India

Company plans to increase its partnered restaurants to 20,000

Foodpanda, a global mobile food delivery marketplace, is set to increase its head count by 3-4 folds in India by end of this year.

Currently the company is operating across 200 cities and partnered with 12,000 restaurants. Delivery will be the big focus, said Saurabh Kochhar, CEO, Foodpanda.

Foodpanda, which claims as India's largest online food-ordering platform recently launched its own food delivery services, in order to provide a seamless experience to its customers. The company is currently targeting restaurants, which have delivery services as well as those that have not yet stepped into this realm.

While the company will not grow much beyond 200 cities, it hopes to increase the number of restaurants to 20,000 end of this year.

"We are looking at multiple growth in every possible cities in the country," said Kochhar. Currently tier-I cities account for nearly 50 per cent, while the balance comes from tier-II and tjer-III cities.

Queried whether the company is open for further acquisitions in India, he said, "we are open, but nothing on the cards immediately. If something comes up, which can be a compliment for our business, then we will look into."

Early this year, Foodpanda has acquired rival JustEat in India in a stock-led deal.

Commenting on the recently launched delivery services, he said, although the service was recently launched, he claimed already the company clocked 20 per cent orders and are hoping to escalate this figure to 60-70 per cent by next year.

By extending company's services from the online stage of ordering to actual delivery at the consumer's doorstep, the company aim at augmenting customers' engagement with foodpanda and deliver to a larger set of partners.

Currently, the service covers five Indian cities -- Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru -- and the company is planning to ramp up this number to 12, in the next 3 to 6 months.