Ola lets go of Foodpanda delivery, lays off employees

Ola had partnered with Foodpanda India as their food delivery partner about 18 months ago. Now, the ride-hailing app that is used by riders across the country, has stopped its food delivery arm and let go of about 40 employees who were at the mid-to-entry level. 

Foodpanda’s cloud kitchen system and other in-house brands will continue to operate however accessing the restaurants through Ola app would not be possible. After an unsuccessful attempt at the food delivery business in 2015 with the launch of Ola Café, the acquisition of Foodpanda was a second attempt. 

According to the media reports, Ola had started to wind down the food delivery business team considerably. Starting out with the entry-level employees and then the operations team. The operations team with senior employees is being retained. 

However, Ola is still in talks with incumbent food delivery leaders such as Dunzo and Zomato, who have been offering multiple discounts and expanding their reach across the country, in order to help Ola enlist cloud kitchen brands. 

The marketplace for Foodpanda has been shrinking given the highly competitive landscape where the likes of UberEats, Swiggy and Zomato continue to dominate the streets of food delivery.