Foodpanda partners with Indian cloud kitchen firm Rebel Foods

[SINGAPORE] Online takeaway delivery firm Foodpanda is partnering with Indian virtual kitchen company Rebel Foods to roll out the latter's virtual restaurant brands at 2,000 outlets across 10 Asian countries, Foodpanda's chief operating officer (COO) said.

"Foodpanda is Asia's largest food delivery company ... while Rebel Foods is the largest virtual brands operator in the world," said COO Pedram Assadi. "This is the largest virtual food brand partnership of its kind."

Under the deal, Foodpanda, which is owned by Berlin-based Delivery Hero, has recruited and trained hundreds of outlets to franchise the global restaurant brands created by Rebel Foods and offer their food on its platform.

Mumbai-based Rebel Foods, which offers multiple cloud kitchen brands across countries including India and the United Arab Emirates, raised US$175 million this month at a US$1.4 billion valuation. It plans to launch an initial public offering IPO in the next two years.

Cloud kitchens which prepare food for delivery got a boost from the shift to online buying during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Low overhead costs versus traditional restaurants and fast scale-up potential have also enabled "Internet restaurant chains" to grow quickly.

Foodpanda's partnership with Rebel Foods is already being tested in six of the 12 Asian markets that Foodpanda is active in, and there is the option to expand to the other regions Delivery Hero is active in, Assadi said.

He did not give any financial details of the deal, but described it as core to Foodpanda's strategy in Asia - along with its expansion into grocery delivery in South-east and East Asia - as it takes on competitors such as British rival Deliveroo and Singaporean startup Grab Holdings.

"Over the last year, we now have built over 250 'cloud stores' that are operating grocery end to end, which makes us the largest e-commerce delivery player in APAC (Asia-Pacific)," Assadi said, referring to distribution centres dedicated to online grocery orders.

REUTERS