Yemeksepeti

Sale

In May 2015 Yemeksepeti was sold to the German-based Delivery Hero for $589 million (£378 m). Founder Nevzat Aydin paid out $27 million to 114 workers as a profit-sharing bonus, reported to be worth around $237,000 (£152,000) per employee. The bonus is worth roughly 150 times their monthly wage, which is between $1,000 to 2000 per month.

Operational Model

The company operates as an online real-time intermediary between the ordering user and the delivering restaurant where he/she can use the website as an up-to-date directory to browse different food delivery options in each listed neighborhood and place an online.

The user has the option to check menus either by cuisine, location, restaurant name or special deals that are on, or make a self-customized order and place it in advance. The user also has the chance to benefit from either the general or the yemeksepeti.com exclusive discounts and promotions offered by the listed restaurants. Yemeksepeti also holds partnerships with leading brands such as Coca-Cola, Türk Ekonomi Bankası (Turkish Economy Bank) and Vodafone, to offer its users extra discounts.

The user has the ability to rate the restaurant based on delivery speed, food quality and service and leave comments and reviews. With the iPhone application launched in September, 2011, orders can be placed via the mobile platform as well. “We receive approximately 60% of our daily orders through this app.” commented Nedim Nahmias, COO of Yemeksepeti. Following its success, the Android application too was made available in May 2013 in order to broaden the access channel for all smartphone users.

From the restaurant’s point of view, its business relation with the website is mutually beneficial. The fee structure of the website is commission based, which means that the amount paid by the restaurant is related to how many orders it succeeded to receive and fulfill.

By this model, the website adds some value to this process by saving the user’s and the restaurant’s time, minimising its discrepancies and maximising its efficiency and potential benefits.

History

Yemeksepeti.com was founded in the year 2001 by Nevzat Aydin, Melih Odemis, Cem Nufusi and Gokhan Akan, and reached 1000 orders a day for the first time in 2004. This number was increased to 10.000 a day in 2008. In the same year, the company had its first round of investment and agreed to be partners with European Founders Fund.

Yemeksepeti entered the GCC region by launching out Foodonclick.com in The United Arab Emirates in 2009, starting in Dubai then extending to Abu Dhabi and Sharjah in the same year. Before the acquisition by Delivery Hero in 2015, Yemeksepeti was active in 10 countries including United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, Greece, Bulgaria ad Romania.

In 2012, Yemeksepeti announced a $44 million investment led by global growth investor General Atlantic (GA), which acquired a minority stake in the company. [1] Yemeksepeti represented GA’s first investment in Turkey. Yemeksepeti increased the daily number of orders to 50.000 the same year.

Yemeksepeti activated Online Credit Card feature in 2013. Food culture platform yemek.com was aired by the company in the following year, with the goal of “becoming the most comprehensive internet channel about food in Turkey”.

In May 2015 Yemeksepeti was acquired by the German-based Delivery Hero for $589 million (£378 m). It is yet the biggest internet acquisition of the Region. Founder Aydin, who paid out $27 million to 114 workers as a profit-sharing bonus, still works as the CEO after the acquisition.