Rocket Internet’s Foodpanda raises an additional $60M in funding

Rocket Internet doesn’t seem to be resting its heels when it comes to funding these days. Its online food delivery service, Foodpanda, announced today that it secured US$60 million from a group of investors including existing investors Falcon Edge Capital and Rocket Internet AG. Foodpanda global managing director Ralf Wenzel explains that he will use the funding to continue expansion:

The new funding will be invested in continuous growth in our existing markets, by partnering with even more restaurants in more cities and further improving customer service. We want to establish ourselves as the market-leading food delivery marketplace, creating the most convenient way to order food – wherever you are.

Foodpanda now has over 10,000 restaurant partners in Asia. This year, Wenzel hopes to increase that number to 20,000, and reach over 200 Asian cities. The company currently has about 350 employees in 14 Asian countries.

See: Foodpanda CEO: we want to be the Facebook of food ordering; here’s how we’ll do it

“Asia is among the fastest growing regions for us. […] Our vision is to get into every single Asian city over the next months,” says Wenzel. He adds that more than 40 percent of its orders in Asia comes from mobile apps. Foodpanda doesn’t want its delivery service to end in desktop browsers or mobile apps, however – the team plans to bring food ordering into an “interactive environment” in the future, though it’s not clear what that means exactly.

Since its establishment in 2012, Foodpanda – which consists of affiliated brands Hellofood and Delivery Club – has received over $100 million in funding. Earlier in February, the company announced that it had raised $20 million from several investors. In 2013, it closed a total of $28 million in funding.

The fresh injection of funding into Foodpanda comes just a few weeks after after Easy Taxi, Rocket’s global taxi-hailing app, announced it raised a series D round of US$40 million. Given that many industry observers believe Rocket Internet will issue an IPO later this year, these spurts in funding don’t come as a surprise.

(Image credit: Flickr user Autan)