Think of Foodpanda as the last bastion of Rocket Internet in India. Its journey in the country, so far, can be summed up in three parts: A. Setting up brouhaha and enthusiasm of being able to order food from a couch. B. Mismanagement, lack of process and unethical practices. C. Change in guard to bring in some sanity.

What has Foodpanda been up to, the last year?

If you indulge Saurbh Kochhar a bit, he will tell you how Foodpanda has transformed in the last eighteen months or so. That with growing orders, the company is an entity to reckon with in the food delivery space. That operational profits have either already been achieved or are around the corner. That discounting is a thing of the past. No more free lunches. Or dinner. That the company is losing money only because of its investments in technology, marketing and logistics. That Foodpanda laid off a whole lot of people to achieve 99% automation. Kochar has said all of this and more. More. And more. Just a while back, Foodpanda issued a gushing release saying its revenue has grown 800%. It is, to put it simply, needless indulgence in isolation.

Results:

Rs 37.6 crore: That’s the total money Foodpanda made as of March 2016. 8X jump over last year’s revenue of Rs. 4.5 crore. The revenue is a mix of IT support services, advertising & publicity and other services, like commission.  

Rs 142.6 crore: That’s Foodpanda’s loss as of FY16. 4X jump over last year’s loss of Rs 36 crore.

Rs 147 crore: That’s the money Foodpanda received from its parent company. 

Rs 55 crore: Discounting charges Foodpanda incurred as of March 2016. This is a significant jump compared to the previous year. 7X. Last year, Foodpanda spent Rs 8.3 crore in discounting. This number should not be looked at in isolation. Foodpanda also dished out guarantee commission of Rs 3.6 crore this year. It was an insignificant 35 lakhs in the previous year. Clearly, discounting has played a major role in growth in total revenue.

Rs 28 crore: That’s Foodpanda’s ad spend as of March 2016. It spent almost Rs 21 crore in the previous year.

Rs 35 crore: Foodpanda’s total employee cost. Again, a significant jump over the previous year, of Rs 6.4 crore. What are these many people doing at Foodpanda when the company has achieved 99% automation in orders, remains a mystery. And not to mention, that commission revenue of Rs 34 crore seems to be riding on the back of higher discounts and advertising spend.

Rs 3.7 crore: Total rent paid by Foodpanda as of March 2016. Foodpanda pays more rent than compared to its information technology expense of Rs 2.5 crore.

Rs 42.9 crore: Miscellaneous expenses recorded by Foodpanda as of March 2016. Almost 15X of what it incurred in the previous year of Rs 2.8 crore. Foodpanda’s profit & loss account does not spell out what goes in miscellaneous expenses. Except that the company bore expense of Rs 33 lakh from loss of orders — amounts not received from customers. Miscellaneous expense is a mysterious black box.

0: Foodpanda’s claim of operation break even

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