London-based HungryPanda, which provides a specialist online ordering platform for Chinese customers living abroad in cities around the globe, has raised $70 million in funding.
The round was disclosed this morning by Swedish investment powerhouse Kinnevik, which has put up $35 million or half the total amount for the round, joining previous investors 83North and Felix Capital - who between them have backed the likes of Wolt, Deliveroo and Just Eat - and other investors like Piton Capital, VNV Global and BurdaPrincipal Investments.
HungryPanda raised a $20 million round earlier this year.
The online Asian food delivery scale-up was launched in 2017 by founder Eric Liu, a computer science graduate at the University of Nottingham who wanted to fix a problem he experienced first-hand – getting hold of authentic Chinese food on-demand away from home.
According to the Kinnevik release, HungryPanda's business has grown 30x in three years and is currently profitable in the UK and cities like New York. It adds that the company currently boasts a 500-person strong team operating in 6 countries across the world, serving 47 cities.
With the fresh cash, the company plans to double the size of its team to 1,000.
Said Eric Liu: "This has been an exceptional year of growth for HungryPanda. We can launch in new cities in just two weeks and have established ourselves as the market leader due to our laser focus on developing the best service for our customers and providing high-quality execution."
Kinnevik CEO Georgi Ganev commented: "As digital adoption advances, we see an opportunity for community-oriented marketplaces that have a deeper understanding of targeted audiences and a more tailored product. We have been impressed by how Eric and team have leveraged their first-hand user empathy to rapidly scale HungryPanda while remaining capital efficient. We look forward to helping the team expand across products, regions and audiences."
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