KARACHI: At 51, single mother Anjum Nida Rahman has transformed her Karachi kitchen into a bustling food business. What began as a passion for healthy recipes has grown into Lo-Kal Bites, a gluten- and sugar-free brand known for its pizza and best-selling chocolate mousse.

Rahman joined foodpanda’s home chef platform in 2022. Today, she employs a team of four across Karachi and Lahore, dispatching dozens of parcels daily. 

“The money that I make in this business helps me provide for my son,” she told Arab News. “I’m a single mother … Our business is enough for us to have this [small] team.”

Rahman is part of a digital food revolution. Nearly 6,000 women across Pakistan are now selling everything from French desserts to Burmese Khow Suey and Moroccan chicken through foodpanda, the country’s largest food delivery service. For many, it is the first time they have been able to monetize traditional family recipes and reach customers far beyond their neighborhoods.

Pakistan’s embrace of mobile technology has fueled this shift. With mobile penetration exceeding 80 percent, digital services are expanding rapidly. Statista estimates the country’s online food delivery market will generate $2.4 billion by the end of 2025.

Despite the deep Internet penetration and growing e-commerce ecosystem, overall, only about 24 percent of Pakistani women aged 15 and older participate in the labor force, one of the lowest rates in South Asia, according to the World Bank. Social norms, safety concerns, and limited mobility have historically excluded women from formal employment, pushing many toward home-based enterprises.

And even within entrepreneurship, women’s share remains small. A diagnostic study by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) found that of Pakistan’s more than five million small and medium enterprises, only about 8 percent are women-owned, highlighting structural barriers to finance, training and market access. The World Bank notes that women-led businesses are also far less likely to have access to formal financial services such as bank loans, limiting their growth potential.

According to Global System for Mobile Communications Association, the global industry body that represents mobile network operators and the wider mobile ecosystem, and the World Bank, Pakistan faces a staggering economic loss of up to $17 billion annually due to women’s exclusion from digital connectivity, particularly mobile Internet. This isn’t simply about online access but represents lost opportunities in e-commerce, online education, digital financial services and remote work.

These statistics make this surge in women-led enterprises particularly significant, with home-based platforms offering a rare chance at financial independence.

“I want to spend time with my son at home,” Rahman explained. “I have elderly parents I need to look after … foodpanda gives us a platform where we can create an industry, make traditional food … and share it with everybody.”

Her success is measurable. 

In Karachi, Rahman’s orders grew 42 percent in just six months, totaling more than 2,500 deliveries. 

“As a company, we have grown 28 percent and we’ve made in the last six months over 4,600 orders,” she said. “We are growing almost double.”

Fellow entrepreneur Nazish Rehman has followed a similar trajectory. 

Four years ago, she received a single order in her first week. Today, her brand Kausey Extreme handles around 50 orders a day. Her menu has expanded from a lone bowl of Khow Suey to over 22 dishes ranging from dumplings and chow mein to pastas and fries.

“The most exciting impact this business has on my life is that I have become an earner and am no more dependent on others,” she said.

THE FOODPANDA FACTOR

Foodpanda is a subsidiary of Berlin-based Delivery Hero, which operates in more than 70 countries. The company generated $1.2 billion in economic activity in FY24 and now connects millions of users in 35 Pakistani cities with restaurants, home chefs, and its own pandamart grocery stores. It engages thousands of freelance riders and handles up to 20 percent of the total food business for its restaurant partners.

Muntaqa Peracha, CEO of foodpanda Pakistan, told Arab News the company had deliberately positioned itself as an enabler for women.

“We’ve given opportunities [to] these women to [join the platform] without spending too much time … on marketing themselves,” he said, adding that of the 6,000 home chefs on the platform, 75 percent are women, with more than half earning for the first time.

But the partnership is not without its critics.

Industry insiders point out that foodpanda’s commission, reportedly above 30 percent per order, plus a 10 percent marketing fee, cuts deep into home chefs’ margins.

“Commission rates for home chefs on our platform can vary based on several factors, and we are committed to supporting these entrepreneurs, who are often new to the business,” said Hassan Arshad, the company’s director of policy and communications. 

He added that foodpanda had engaged provincial governments to reduce the tax burden on commissions to “better incentivize and support the growth of these home-based businesses.”

Despite the costs, both Rahman and Nazish insist the visibility and reach are worth it. 

“It’s a fantastic platform to … bring women into the workplace and increase financial inclusion,” Rahman said. “Women are now able to contribute to their households. They don’t need to leave their house … We feel very empowered.”