Founded in 2004 by a small group of aspiring entrepreneurs, Talabat started with a simple concept – it put hungry food lovers in touch with local restaurants and handled every aspect of the logistics along the way.
Diners filtered by cuisine to browse the menus of hundreds of potential takeaways online or via a dedicated app. With an order placed, Talabat’s fleet of thousands of drivers set about picking it up from the restaurant and delivering it to the door – allowing customers to track their meal every step of the way.
Restaurants large and small pay a flat delivery fee, and Talabat takes care of the rest. By handling driver recruitment, ordering, delivery and more, the company helps customers instantly add a new revenue stream at a low cost – a concept that quickly delivered transformational results.
Over the years that followed, Talabat expanded with offices in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan and bagged several prestigious industry awards. Today, it is one of the largest food delivery services in the GCC and has its sights set on becoming the market leader in the MENA region.
To achieve this aim, Talabat has expanded its offering to include grocery and non-food item delivery, opening more than 30 tMart stores across the Emirates in the process.
In 2021, non-food orders grew by over 100%, total orders increased by more than 60% and the company reported two million new downlands of its app. The following year saw continued success as well, and at the end of 2022 Talabat launched its revolutionary quick-commerce-as-a-service (Q-CAAS) concept, a delivery-only store operation management solution.
Today the company shows no signs of slowing down. Ever at the forefront of industry innovation, Talabat is currently piloting ‘talabots’ – food delivery robots serving the gated communities of Dubai Silicon Oasis.
