Berlin-based online food delivery company, Foodpanda, has merged its Hellofood business with Saudi Arabia’s Hungerstation to capitalise on the strength of the food delivery market in the Kingdom.
The combined business has more than 3 million app installs, over 1 million active users and an inventory of over 2,000 restaurants.
Ralf Wenzel, co-founder and CEO of Foodpanda group commented: “Along with our other businesses in the Middle East, Hungerstation and hellofood consolidate our market leadership in the region and we are proud to have achieved overall profitability just three years after launch.”
Foodpanda entered the Middle East in March 2013 under its hellofood brand and also operates food delivery businesses, 24h.ae in the UAE and Otlob.com in Egypt.
Online food ordering portal, Hungerstation, was founded by Saudi entrepreneur Ebrahim Al-Jassim in March 2012 in Dammam. Today, the service is available in more than 30 cities across Saudi Arabia.
“Together with Ebrahim, we will have an extremely experienced local team on the ground, which understands the market, built strong relationships with restaurants and continuously strive to bring the most convenient food delivery experience to our customers,” Wenzel added.
The Middle East is the second region in which Foodpanda has reached profitability, following the Central Eastern Europe region, which became profitable at the start of the year.
In Saudi Arabia, the team will be led by Al-Jassim alongside Mehdi Oudghiri and Anass Boumediene, managing directors of Foodpanda Middle East.
Al-Jassim commented: “We have worked very hard during the last years, developing strategic alliances with the main players in the food industry and building trust among our customers.
“That together with our working ethics and culture has helped us to become the leader of online food delivery in Saudi Arabia. With the experience, resources and technology of Foodpanda, we are very excited and ready to take the next big step in order to provide a world class service to Saudi consumers.”
Anass Boumediene and Mehdi Oudghiri, managing directors foodpanda Middle East added: “We are very excited about joining forces with Hungerstation.
“This merger will allow us to combine our global operational best practices with the strong local market knowledge of Ebrahim and his team to further strengthen our relationships with restaurants and customers.”
Foodpanda operates in 24 growth countries in Asia, Middle East, Russia and Eastern Europe and has 40,000 partner restaurants and more than 6 million active users worldwide.
