The HungerStation story: the day HungerStation's founder lost his company
The story of HungerStation and its founder Ibrahim Aljassim: from a group-order idea in Dammam in 2012, to selling the majority stake to foodpanda in 2016, to the termination of the founders' and management's contracts in 2019, to revenue of 609 million euros in 2022, and Uber's deal to buy Delivery Hero in 2026.
Full film transcript
In a single day, in April 2019, the German owner ended the contract of the founder of Saudi Arabia's biggest delivery app.
Along with his partner and all the senior management.
The story began in 2012, in Dammam, with Ibrahim Aljassim and his partner Hussein Bukhamseen.
The idea: instead of one person in the group running around to five restaurants, one order brings it all.
It spread. In 2016, foodpanda bought the majority stake, and HungerStation became part of Germany's Delivery Hero group.
In 2019, the parent company ended the contracts of the two founders and the management, and the stated reason was rapid market changes.
Even so, in 2022, its revenue reached 609 million euros, with operating profit above 50 million.
In 2023, Delivery Hero bought the remaining stake, for $297 million.
That puts the whole company's value at nearly $800 million.
But competition heated up. Its share was about 65% in 2019.
After Keeta entered, it fell to about 40%.
In July 2026, Uber announced a deal to acquire all of Delivery Hero, including HungerStation.
As for Aljassim? He went and founded Ninja, and it became a unicorn.
The lesson for you as a founder: if you sell the majority stake, the decision is no longer in your hands.
Follow us at Saudi Founders.
Detailed figures and sources are in the HungerStation profile in the directory.
