FoodPanda, the online food delivery service provider has started evoking registrations of over 500 restaurants every month as the company is now aiming to stabilize it’s operations after facing fire for alleged booking of fake orders by restaurants.
The company’s management was not stable and was hit by frenetic growth and upheaval in top management. Backed by Rocket Internet, in a bid to become the market leader, the company acquired most of its competitors.
Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, the company is currently operating in 40 countries and territories, including India, Pakistan, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and Singapore. It claims to have partnered with over 58,000 restaurants.
FoodPanda has been under fire for alleged booking of fake orders by restaurants on its network, reports ET based on the information provided by people familiar with the matter. The issues raised include misusing discount offers and creating fake orders. The problems were caused when restaurants were listed without physical verification.
The company now claims that they have installed systems which detect IP address and location of restaurants if they try to book their own orders. They will first counsel and warn the restaurant owners and if they repeat the same behavior, FoodPanda will ban that restaurant. As a part of its cleam-up drive, the company is deactivating anywhere from 500 to 1,000 restaurants a month.
Sourabh Kochhar, CEO of FoodPanda who took the role after his company TastyKhana was acquired in 2014, says that their database are not 100% clean but they are 99% clean. Since January 2015, the company has doubled its partnership with restaurants to 12,000 in India.
FoodPanda was founded in 2012 by Beschir Hussain, Rohit Chadda, Marko Jukic, Giuseppe Belpiede, Ralf Wenzel, and Benjamin Bauer. It has raised around $218 million in funding and has acquired 9 start-ups so far.
It is also being reported that Rocket Internet is looking to sell its top e-commerce companies in India which includes Jabong, FoodPanda and FabFurnish. It is being said that the company failed to anticipate the depth of competition in India and the difference in doing Internet business in India.
