Foodpanda dedicates $35m to support communities, MSMEs in 2021

The platform has also committed funds in upskilling its delivery riders.

Food and grocery platform foodpanda has allocated over $35m to support communities, aid micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in their digital transformation, and upskill its delivery riders in 2021.

Foodpanda launched its first Social Impact Report, pandapurpose, which showed the initiatives the platform implemented across its 12 markets namely Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines.

The platform has dedicated $29m to support MSMEs including wet market vendors in Thailand and Taiwan, as well as local mom-and-pop shops in Malaysia and the Philippines. They also provided aid to hawkers in Singapore.

It said in a statement that this support ranged from new digital tools to expand merchants revenue stream to fee waivers and other fee relief efforts.

Around $6m was also allotted for riders’ welfare and benefits such as safety training, insurance, and financial support for the purchase of bicycles or motorbikes, it said, adding that created earning opportunities for over 370,000 new riders last year.

Foodpanda also invested $91,000 to upskill riders in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan, and dedicated $70,000 on mental wellness, providing its employees and riders subscription to mental wellness apps.

It has also spent over $500m to support local governments and communities in their fight against COVID-19 through the distribution of food, essentials, and medical supplies to healthcare workers and people in need. It also led a vaccination awareness program in partnership with health ministries.

"Since foodpanda was founded in 2012, we have been driven by our value to 'get 1% better every day', rolling out technical features that make millions of lives better. Technology has been an especially powerful tool to help sustain livelihoods, preserve business legacies, tackle environmental challenges, and build an inclusive platform for our community of merchants, riders, and customers to thrive,"  said foodpanda CEO Jakob Sebastian Angele.

In addressing environmental sustainability challenges, the platform worked with local partners to improve food sustainability and reduce plastic waste, saving over 900 million pieces of single-use plastic cutlery in 2021 through the cutlery opt-out feature.

More than 25.000 sustainable products like plant-based food were also made available on pandamart and foodpanda shops. It also offered cultured-meat dishes to Singaporean customers, the first food delivery platform to do so, and encouraged use of greener transportation options, with more than 20% of its fleets in the region delivering on foot, bicycles or e-bikes.