Foodpanda devours Delivery Club for Russian expansion

Foodpanda operates in 40 countries, including Qatar, Uganda, Rwanda and Azerbaijan

The Rocket Internet-owned foodpanda, and its affiliate brand, hellofood, have been on a roll lately: expanding worldwide and picking up a nice amount of funding along the way as well. In fact, the company has said that it expects to reach 50 countries by next year.

At the same time, foodpanda also wants to go deeper into the 40 countries where it already has services, in Eastern Europe Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. And now the company is doing just that in Russia, by buying up Delivery Club, the country's leading food delivery service.

The financial terms of the deal, which was disclosed on Wednesday, have not been revealed.

Founded in 2009, Delivery Club is currently available in 18 cities across Russia. By making this purchase, foodpanda now expects to become the leading food delivery service in the country, with more than 2,500 partnering delivery restaurants.

“We are excited to announce that after acquiring Delivery Club, we will be the market leading food delivery marketplace in Russia, serving customers across the entire CIS region," Ralf Wenzel, Co-Founder and Global Managing Director of foodpanda/hellofood, said in a statement.

"This follows our clear goal to be the number one in all our over 40 markets around the globe and provide the most convenient way to order food, wherever you are in the world.”

As for Delivery Club, the company gets the benefit of having foodpanda's resources behind it.

The deal will "help us to bring the product to a next level, increase our marketing efforts and continue to develop our product to one of the customer friendliest in the world," said Anna Shkirina, Managing Director of Delivery Club.

foodpanda is one of the world's largest global food delivery companies, but there is a lot of competition in the food delivery space, with many companies raising funding in the last couple of years. 

That includes Just-Eat, which raised $64 million round in April 2012, while Fresh Dish, a subscription meal delivery service launched with $500,000 from Battery Ventures in November.

Last year saw Eat Club raise $5 million in a Series A round led by August Capital, and then Relay Foods raised $8.25 million from unnamed investors, in April. 

Recently, Delivery Hero raised $88 million, bringing it close to $200 million in total funding.

To stay ahead, foodpanda's MO seems to be to go to places where, frankly, many other companies might fear to travel.

The company has services in India, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia. Meanwhile, hellofood operates in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Algeria. 

So far it seems to  be strategy that is working. 

 Founded in 2012, the company has raised $48 million, most recently picking up $20 million in February of this year from a group of investors including existing investor Phenomen Ventures.

foodpanda could not be reached for further comment.

(Image source: foodpanda.ru)