Foodpanda India will spend Rs 400 crore ($60 million) to hire 25,000 riders and improve its online food delivery network as it looks to take on Naspers-owned Swiggy and Alibaba-backed Zomato.
The fresh investment would focus on scaling up technology to provide a robust backend and provide assistance through their own delivery network, Ola, which acquired Foodpanda India in December last year, said. New riders will be hired in the next 12 to 15 months.
The fresh investment comes after Swiggy raised $100 million from Naspers and Chinese e-commerce service platform Meituan-Dianping, and Alibaba Group's Ant Financial pumped $200 million in Zomato.
“Creating a strong delivery ecosystem backed by technology is one of the most fundamental needs of the Indian food tech industry,” Pranay Jivrajka, chief executive officer of Foodpanda India, said in the statement. “We recognise this and are investing Rs 400 crore to further strengthen our delivery network across all the metros and other key cities.”
The infusion will come from $200 million that ANI Technologies, Ola's parent, had committed to the company at the time of the acquisition.
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