Eat Mubarak: (A) Battling foodpanda in Online Food Delivery; (B) Pivot to Blinkco.io

Abstract

The Eat Mubarak (A and B) case series begins as a David and Goliath story. Eat Mubarak was a multi-city online food delivery company based in Pakistan, set up in early 2019 by three local entrepreneurs. In Case A, we see how—despite being a late entrant—Eat Mubarak makes successful inroads into the market. In just nine months, it gained a 10% market share against an incumbent (foodpanda) backed by a multi-national giant in the industry (Delivery Hero), easily surpassing the nine-year 2% achievement of Cheetay Logistics. Successful penetration against pre-existing network economies of scale is demonstrated. When expected funding fails to come through, the end of Case A allows us to really dig into the business model fundamentals. Will continued growth hacking pay off, or are we destined to fail as foodpanda will make it a winner-take-all market? In Case B, the CEO exits the online food delivery business market. The need to understand winner-take-all strategies linked to all sides on this multi-sided platform is demonstrated. The application of breakeven analysis in evaluating the path to profitability is also afforded discussion throughout the case. Overall, the case series is rich in data on start-up valuation practices and practical challenges in securing venture capital funding for growth hacking where network economies of scale are at play. The approach to this case study combines field studies in the form of interviews with the CEO of Eat Mubarak and data on events and competitors from public sources, especially newspapers and one McKinsey report. It is written with a layered approach, so the students are given exciting facts at the start (such as an entrepreneur facing business failure) but need to read deeper to understand the business.