Ola's food delivery platform Foodpanda posts 5x rise in loss for FY18
Online food delivery platform Foodpanda, which was acquired by Ola in 2017, posted a sharp five-fold increase in its loss for FY18. According to filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), the company's loss widened from Rs 44.82 crore in FY17 to Rs 227.95 crore for the year ended March 2018.
The RoC data also showed that the company’s revenue from operations rose to Rs 72.13 crore in FY18, from Rs 61.43 crore in the previous financial year. Expenses increased to Rs 162.64 crore in FY18 from Rs 107.08 crore in FY17. The company also posted an exceptional expense of Rs 138.15 crore.
In October 2018, Foodpanda entered the cloud kitchen space by acquiring Mumbai-based internet restaurant HolaChef. The acquisition is believed to be a part of its plans to launch its own brand of food products.
Foodpanda primarily makes money from commissions and delivery fees.
Also Read: Why success in Foodtech is about mastering logistics
In recent times, the foodtech sector in India has witnessed aggressive growth. A report by research firm RedSeer said that the overall foodtech market in India is estimated to reach $2.5 billion in 2021 against $700 million at present. Interestingly, though, Ola is reported to have more than halved its investment in Foodpanda as part of a plan to focus on its core business.
On Wednesday, foodtech Unicorn Zomato announced it had raised a funding of $40 million led by Glade Brook. Swiggy, in December last year, announced it raised $1 billion in Series H funding led by Naspers and other existing investors. These unicorns have also been busy in the M&A space. In December 2018, while Zomato acquired Lucknow-based TechEagle Innovations, which works exclusively on drones, Swiggy this month announced it had acqui-hired Kint.io, a Bengaluru-based AI startup.
Flipkart Co-founder Sachin Bansal recently invested $21 million (approximately Rs 150 crore) in Ola. The ride-hailing unicorn also raised an additional Rs 112 crore as part of the company's larger $2 billion fund-raise.