All photos: Karolina Komendera

Prosus, one of the largest companies on the JSE, has a R14 billion problem. For every $10 order in one of its food delivery businesses globally, it loses around 15¢. It only keeps around 15% to 20% of each order – the so-called ‘take rate’ – and this revenue has to pay for operating the delivery platform. This does not include the cost of delivering each order, which is typically billed separately. For each $10 in this revenue, its trading loss is $2. In the most recent half-year, that trading loss totalled $381 million, equating to around R14 billion for a full year.

This is not unique to Prosus, which counts Brazil’s iFood as its main food delivery asset, along with minority stakes in Germany’s Delivery Hero and India’s Swiggy.