Foodpanda makes a profitability pitch

Claiming to be the most dominant player in the market and in an effort to dispel 'rumours' around its possible shutting down or sale, the Rocket Internet and Goldman Sachs backed food-tech startup Foodpanda today said it would be profitable by financial year 2018-19.

Dismissing speculations around selling out as untrue, Saurabh Kochhar, CEO Foodpanda India, told Business Standard that the company was the leader in the food order and delivery category in the industry and had no plans to exit from the Indian market. "It is a $300 billion market, we are planning to play a much bigger role and stay the market leader. We are not selling out, we are leaders by far in this category in this industry and we intend to keep going at it and play a more dominant role," he said.

The company, which was in the news for all the wrong reasons last year, including sacking of as many as 300 employees, said it was part of the maturity process of the company. "We are maturing in our process and technology, which also means that tough decisions would need to be made. Technological advancements are helping us run a much leaner business," added Kochhar.

The company also said it had adequate cash in the bank and was not looking for fresh funding. "We have many investors interested in investing in us in India and abroad but we are not looking for any fresh rounds of funding. If something happens, we are open for a fresh round of funding, but we are not actively looking for funds," Kochhar added.

According to the company, India is among its top five markets which include Russia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.

Kochhar said the bloodbath in the food-tech sector in 2015 was due to a huge influx of 'me-too' players in the market. "If there are too many players doing roughly the same thing, it is going to lead to a shakeout. It is a cycle that happens, many others have gone through the same thing," he said.

He hinted that at least two of the players in the sector might either wind down their business or be acquired and said after the consolidation, which could go on for some time starting this year, only two or three companies would survive and Foodpanda would be the leading one among them.

"We will lead the pack after consolidation happens, the market cannot accommodate more than two to three players," he said.

Kochhar said as the company did not have any debt and did not follow a capex heavy model, it would be able to achieve profitability by 2018-19. Last year, according to reports, the company suffered losses of Rs 36 crore.

The company said it was going to strengthen its operations rather than going for expansion this year.