Food delivery platform Deliveroo reported a 70% increase in its revenue in Singapore, from SGD 26.40 million (USD 19.30 million) in 2017 to SGD 44.50 million in 2018, according to a statement released earlier.
Founded in 2013, the London-headquartered company operates in over 500 towns and cities across 14 markets. It expanded to Singapore in November 2015.
In Singapore, it faces competition in the local food delivery scene from players like FoodPanda and GrabFood—with Honestbee exiting the market.
The fierce competition for market share is probably why the company recently poured in SGD 20.7 million (USD 15.1 million) into its Singapore operations. According to Deliveroo, the investment from its headquarters contributed to the strong growth.
The money was used to grow Deliveroo Singapore’s rider network and restaurant partners as well as to continue the buildout of the local team, the company told KrASIA.
Its rider base in Singapore increased from 2,860 in December 2017 to 6,300 in July 2019 while the number of restaurants on the platform rose from 2,400 to 4,500 for the same period.
Owing to these developments, the food delivery platform managed to snatch a significant portion of Singapore’s food delivery pie.
GrabFood, Deliveroo’s biggest rival in Singapore joined the food delivery market in Singapore in May 2018 and has been growing very rapidly since.
According to a statement released by Grab, its food operation in Singapore saw a 25% month-on-month growth between May 2018 and May 2019, although the firm has not said how much market share it holds.
Together, Deliveroo and GrabFood make up approximately 60% of the online food delivery market in Singapore.
Building out tools
As part of its strategy to intensify and cement its stronghold in the Singapore market, Deliveroo introduced a slew of initiatives and tools to improve its overall services.
To improve its customer service, Deliveroo launched an unlimited delivery for a fixed monthly fee subscription service called Deliveroo Plus, which it claims to be a first for a food delivery service in Singapore.
On the restaurant front, the company said it will be introducing two new tools: Restaurant Home and Marketer. The former is an online portal that provides data and insights on how restaurants’ delivery services perform. The latter tool enables restaurants to upload and tailor promotions to consumers on the app.
The food delivery platform expanded into a new vertical here in Singapore with the opening of a food market site in March 2019. The new site features a 40-seater dine-in space for customers and 10 kitchens with fully-automated ordering.
The food delivery platform even piloted a walking delivery service for users in the central business district in Singapore and has a central kitchen here with interest in opening more of that.
The Asia-Pacific region is a vital market for the company, reported The Straits Times, citing the general manager of Deliveroo Singapore, Siddharth Shanker.
In May this year, it established a new Asia Pacific Performance Hub here to monitor its business performance and drive growth in the region.
In the same month, Deliveroo raised USD 575 million in its Series G funding round and said one of its priorities would be adding 5,000 restaurant partners and 2,000 riders in Singapore by the end of 2019.
However, in its bid to solidify its position in the market in Singapore, the food delivery company was recently accused of anti-competitive behaviour.
The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) said it is looking into the matter and has yet to announce its findings.