Post Funding, Foodpanda looks to expand to 33 countries and expand in India; Insights from Rohit Chadha, Co-Founder

After having raised a 20 million$ round from Phenomen Ventures and AB Kinnevik, co-founder Rohit Chadha has now taken over the responsibility of product head for India, along with his previous

designation for managing director for the country. In a recent press release, Rohit said, "I see a lot of scope in making Foodpanda the medium through which people order their food. We aim at securing a dominant share of the est INR 5,000 crore food delivery market in India in the next 5 years. Having already launched in 10 cities, we target scaling the company’s growth to 16 cities with 5000 partner restaurants within this year."We got in touch with Rohit over the past week to get some insight about India as a market for this Berlin based company -

YS: How are you going to use this investment? 

Rohit: We are already in 23 countries other than India, so the main focus for this investment is expansion. With the help of this investment, we will be looking to expand our operations to 10 more countries, pushing our overall country count to 33. On a more India specific note, we will also be looking to expand to more cities this coming year.

YS: How big is India as a market for Foodpanda? 

Rohit: To put things in perspective, the food services industry is growing at 20% world-wide. While it is known that the majority of the food services market is held in Asia-Pacific countries, India alone grows at 40%. Now this is great potential and it shows with our experiences in India. In terms of the number of orders that we take, India is right at the top. However, in terms of revenues, some South-East Asian countries, like Singapore and Malaysia top India.

YS: How long do you want to run Foodpanda? Is there an exit that you have in mind? 

Rohit: I think it is interesting times for the food services market. It is a huge market and it will only grow in the time to come. When compared to our competitors, we are definitely way ahead of them in most aspects. The focus now is to expand and grow. I haven't thought that far into the future yet.

Some interesting trends 

On the global front, Foodpanda's funding is followed by significantly larger funding raisers by its

competitors, Delivery Hero ($50 million) and Just Eat ($64 million); both operate in India. Closer to home, the likes of TastyKhana.com are also making the rounds.Because this is a sector which has raised a lot of money, there is a concern for a lot of me too players and it won't be surprising to see more players enter this market in the near future. However, just the sheer size of the market might accommodate more players.

With India being a key market for Foodpanda, we expect to see the company making some noise in the near future. For now, this is an interesting market to watch out for.

Stay tuned for more from Foodpanda.