German online business incubator Rocket Internet has entered the Romanian market by launching foodpanda, a global food delivery online platform.

The recently launched foodpanda.ro collaborates with over 50 restaurants in Bucharest.

Rocket Internet wants the newly launched local platform to become market leader by the year's end and to expand to other Romanian cities, after the capital.

“Romania is a country with a strong potential on the food deliveries market and with a steep increase in Internet usage rates,” said Ralf Wenzel (in picture), Co-founder and Managing Director of foodpanda worldwide.

In Romania, the business incubator found that locals order food online during the week between 12:00 and 16:00 hours, as well as after 19:00.

Even if Romanians are big pizza fans, they have recently started ordering more healthy or bio food, said Dan Macarie, Country Manager foodpanda România.

Worldwide, foodpanda is active in 28 countries, works with more than 150,000 restaurants and targets 3 billion consumers. Orders can be made via the foodpanda.ro site and via the apps for iOs and Android devices.

Rocket Internet was founded five years ago and is headquartered in Berlin. It currently has more than 75 active companies in its portfolio and works with more than 20,000 people.

In May this year, foodpanda received USD 20 million funding from a group of investors among them Investment AB Kinnevik and Phenomen Ventures.

editor@romania-insider.com