Foodpanda cuts 300 jobs: will only have vendors deliver in 6 cities

Online food ordering and delivery firm Foodpanda India has laid off 15 per cent of its employees - almost 300 jobs - as it focuses on automation to streamline its operations, according to reports by Mint.

According to the report, FoodPanda has fired people across different segments that include sales, vendor service, customer service, sales, automation etc. "The company has reduced overall workforce by 15 per cent, that is around 300 employees," a company spokesperson told news agencies.

"Foodpanda has managed to reduce manual intervention and achieved about 98 per cent automation rate in order processing. Foodpanda has, therefore, reduced the overall work force by about 15 per cent," the company said in an e-mailed response.

The company is eyeing profitability in India as it continues to focus on technological innovations combined with adjustments to its business model.

Foodpanda India CEO Saurabh Kochhar said: "While we continued to invest in processes and technology, we also had to take some difficult decisions. But we believe them to be necessary steps on our path to become sustainable and profitable within the targeted timeline."

He added: "We also reduced our workforce across a few departments." Currently, Foodpanda has menus from over 12,000 restaurants across over 200 cities in India available on its app and the website.

Rough year for FoodPanda

The company - backed by German incubator Rocket Internet - has been under fire for alleged falsification of orders by restaurants on its network. The issues raised include misusing discount offers and creating fake orders. The problems were caused when restaurants were listed without physical verification.

FoodPanda revoked registrations of over 500 restaurants every month in order to stabilise operations hit by frenetic growth and upheaval in top management.

This year, the firm raised close to $210 million in funding from its parent. However, according to reports from the Economic Times, Rocket Internet is actively looking to divest its stake in FoodPanda.