Foodpanda’s sister Foodora Singapore bound

Foodora – an upmarket little sister of mass market food delivery monopoly Foodpanda – is destined for Singapore.

Foodora Singapore is best described as an “upscale Foodpanda”, a high-end food delivery service targeting cashed-up Millennials who want a higher standard of meal than quick service restaurant fare and faster delivery – and who parent Rocket Internet expects are happy to pay a premium for it.

Rocket launched Foodora in Hong Kong earlier this year and a trial continues in two suburbs with more postcodes to be added later this year.

A quick look at the Hong Kong website shows a clear family resemblance to the Foodpanda site, just a different coloured search button and a silver service platter logo in place of the smiling panda.

But behind the scenes it is all different, we are assured.

Chris Parrott, marketing MD with Foodora, said in an interview with e27 about the Hong Kong site that the two brands are targeting different clientele, albeit meeting the same need: food delivered to the door as quickly as possible.

“Foodpanda is a sister company, so there is scope for knowledge-sharing. We have different target clientele, as our minimum basket size is US$25.8 (HK$200) and Foodpanda’s is variable,” Parrott explained.

A key difference is the delivery time: Foodora promises within 30 minutes, which seems an overly ambitious promise; Foodpanda can take an hour or more, depending on the customer’s location.

Foodora is now active in 14 countries and early this month took over Delivery Hero which is in 34 countries. Singapore will be next, with a website page already visible announcing “Coming soon”.

The Hong Kong business is initially being promoted through blogs, food critics and Instagram.