Ordering food via an online portal or a mobile app in Pakistan? Once there used to be two options – Food Panda and Eat Oye!
And now there is only one as news reports suggest.
Food Panda, a division of the German-owned company Rocket Internet, has acquire Eat Oye, the local Pakistani food ordering service, reported Business Recorder.
Right now no details have materialized regarding the monetary value of the acquisition. A Food Panda rep was kind enough to confirm that details will be made official by the end of the week.
Update
An official statement from Food Panda confirmed that company acquired Eat Oye today.
Food Panda didn’t disclose the value of the deal but said that the total value of Pakistani food ordering market is Rs. 15 Billion.
Official statement said that Eatoye will continue to operate under the existing management and together with foodpanda to cater the needs of Pakistani customers in all major cities.
With this acquisition, foodpanda completes its first buyout in Pakistan’s emerging market. It will also add on more than three thousand restaurants for both platforms.
Ahsan Mateen, Co-Founder and Managing Director foodpanda Pakistan:
“Together we are now exposed to a larger target market which will enable us to work together and touch base with untapped market segments as well as prepare ourselves for forth coming challenges.
We are confident that our customers will always find themselves in a win-win situation”.
Statement by the Board of Arpatech, the key former shareholder of EatOye:
“We are very proud of both the Eat-Oye and Arpatech teams on the announcement of the partnership with foodpanda.
For Arpatech to take Eat-Oye from inception to this stage in under a year is a truly outstanding achievement and testament to the talent, efforts and tenacity of everyone involved. On behalf of the Board of Arpatech we wish the Eat-Oye and foodpanda team every success in the future.”
What does the marriage of two premier food ordering services mean for the Pakistani consumer?
Food Panda had access to 750 partner restaurants and food outlets while Eat Oye had 1,000. There may be some overlapping restaurants on both the services but for foodies, it means they now have a far wider array of ordering choices from one service.
Though the exact modalities are not yet confirmed, it is widely believed that both services will continue to operate under their dedicated portals. This time under one unified management from both the companies.
Eat Oye, formerly Food Connection Pakistan, was the brainchild of two entrepreneurs Rai Umair and Nauman Sikandar. Thanks to the co-founders vision and local expertise, Eat Oye boasted more diverse mix of eateries from Food Panda.
Though the merging of the two services is now a foregone conclusion, it remains to be seen what it will mean to the consumers. Competition is healthy and it gives the food connoisseurs in major Pakistani cities more options and variety.
One thing is for sure. The space for online food delivery and restaurant reservation services is red hot. We are seeing small startups emerging in this landscape such as:
- foona.net
- KhaoPiyo.pk
- Urbanite.pk
- FoodClub.pk
- Mydeliveryclub.com
- Supermeal.pk
So what’s your favourite food ordering service? And how could they serve their customers better? Share your thoughts below.
Wo wo wo whaat?? I was expecting the reverse.
BTW EatOye is much better in UI as well as services.
It is surely not a good decision at all. EatOye being a Pakistani company should have worked better and progress to name Pakistan Internationally and being a loyal restaurant owner to EatOye I’m shocked and didn’t liked the decision at all.
“If you can’t beat them, Eat them.” – FoodPanda
Mix feelings, ordered through eatoye several time and was more than satisfied, tried food panda once but UI confused me, I was hoping that eventually eatoye will dominate the market and I was proud of it as being a local start-up.
Any how, on the upside one local start-up acquired by international company so that’s something good to boost the confidence of local lads. Congrats to both teams
As per ( Lucnh Ghar ) experience with both food panda and eat oye .. we personally prefer food panda as per thier services and will defiantly go for that .We as Lunch Ghar use to provide home made food in Islamabad during lunch time in offices and surroundings
And the reason to prefer FoodPanda?