Foodpanda Launches Food Delivery Service in 5 Indian Cities

Rocket Internet-owned Foodpanda on Thursday officially announced the launch of food delivery services in five cities in the country.

Users have always been able to order food from Foodpanda and get it delivered, but until now, the service has been restricted to restaurants that had delivery mechanisms of their own. With this, Foodpanda is extending the facility to restaurants that haven't traditionally delivered.

Saurabh Kochhar, CEO Foodpanda said, "Our plunge into the food-delivery segment is going to benefit both the customers as well as restaurants, especially those who do not provide delivery services. Although the service is recently launched, we have already clocked 20 percent orders and are hoping to escalate this figure to 60-70 percent by next year. By extending our services from the online stage of ordering to actual delivery at the consumer's doorstep, we aim at augmenting our customers' engagement with Foodpanda and deliver to a larger set of partners."

The five cities in which the Foodpanda delivery service has been launched are: Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru. The company says it plans to expand this to 12 cities in total within the next three to six months.

Another player in the space, Zomato, announced it would its food delivery service service in March - but has since delayed the launch. Earlier this week, Zomato announced the acquisition of MaplePOS to help power its online ordering and reservation systems. Foodpanda, on the other hand acquired JustEat.in for an undisclosed sum in February. It had acquired competing portal TastyKhana in November.