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Rohit Chadda, co-founder and managing director of Foodpanda.in, tells Itika Sharma Punit the company may not look at more acquisitions in the country now, as it sees no other significant players in the market. Excerpts:
How much market share do you now hold in the Indian food-ordering sector?
I cannot give a number as such, but basically, apart from Just Eat India, there aren't any major pan-India players right now. So after this acquisition, there are no other notable companies in the online food-aggregator space.
You have done two acquisitions within three months. Do you aspire to be the only company in segment?
Being the only company would be impossible because there will always be ones coming in some city or the other. Every few weeks, one mushrooms in a new city. But we aspire to be the largest in the market.
What is the potential you see for online food-ordering in India?
Right now, food ordering in India is at a nascent stage, as most of the orders are actually processed on phone. But if you look at developed markets such as the US, 26 per cent of consumers last year ordered food online. In India, the online food-ordering market is in single digits, but the potential is immense. Like you see how other e-commerce verticals are eating up the offline market, this is going to be the case with food ordering, as well.
Will Just Eat India now merge with Foodpanda.in?
No, we will continue to operate as separate brands. There are obviously best practices that we will capitalise on and synergies we will work with. As a company, it will continue to operate as it is operating now. Just Eat India has more than 80 employees now, and we have more than 170.
Rocket Internet holds invstments in several Indian start-ups. What is their vision for India?
I cannot say much about their overall vision for investment in India.
But what I can definitely say is that for food segment, India is a very important market for them. That's the reason we get a lot of support from them. They are very bullish about Indian food space.
