Daily Tech Briefing: Instagram Adds Zomato, Swiggy Delivery Buttons; Uber Rolls Out Hourly Rentals & More

Social media giant Instagram has tied up with Swiggy and Zomato to facilitate food orders through posts and videos on the platform. Instagram, a go-to platform for many food bloggers, is aiming to revive food orders through this initiative.

For this, Instagram has rolled out a food order sticker. Clicking these stickers will redirect users to either Zomato or Swiggy, depending on the landing link. From there, users can complete their purchase. These stickers can be shared by restaurants, which have an Instagram business or creator account, on the ‘Stories’ section as well. Restaurants can also add an ‘Order Food’ button in their profiles linked to the Zomato or Swiggy page.

Uber Rolls Out Hourly Rentals

US-based cab-hailing major Uber has rolled out ‘Hourly Rentals’, an on-demand intra-city service that allows passengers to book cabs for several hours. Passengers can make multiple stops in their journey and will only have to a fare of INR 189 per one hour or ten kilometres.

As of now, Uber is offering passengers to book cabs for up to 12 hours. Uber has launched the service in 17 cities including Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai. The service is similar to its rival Ola’s ‘Rental’ under which the Bengaluru-based company also offers cab on an hourly basis.

Indian Startups Make Moves

• Digital payment solutions startup Infibeam Avenues acquired Bengaluru-based unified digital technology platform Cardpay Technologies Limited in an all-share deal. With this acquisition, Cardpay, which operates under the brand name ‘Grit’, will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infibeam. However, Cardpay founders, Manik Singla and Srinivasan, and its team will continue to lead GRIT’s operations and spend management business.
• Mumbai-based Drums Food International, the parent company of yoghurt-brand Epigamia, is raising INR 40 Cr funding in its Series C round from Danone Manifesto Ventures and Mousse Partners. Separately, the company is also raising INR 35.47 Lakh from Julie McGinnis, founder of Palladian Advisory Services.
• Bengaluru-based healthtech startup HealthPlix raised $6 Mn in its Series B funding round led by JSW Ventures with participation from existing investors Chiratae Ventures and Kalaari Capital. HealthPlix said that it is doubling its efforts to help doctors provide in-person or remote consultation to patients using the same digital platform seamlessly.
• Mumbai-based device management platform Servify is raising INR 85.87 Cr from its existing investors — Iron Pillar, Luxembourg-based Tetrao SPF and Blume Ventures — for strategic business expansion and stability.
• Bengaluru-based Arkam Ventures, formerly known as Unitary Helion, announced the first close of INR 325 Cr of maiden INR 700 Cr startup fund. The fund will bet on early-to-growth-stage startups across financial services, healthcare, food, agriculture, and mobility space.

Swiggy Integrates Scootsy

Food delivery platform Swiggy is planning to integrate its premium food delivery service, Scootsy, within its mainstream food aggregation and delivery application by June 2020. With this, Scootsy’s customers in Mumbai will also be redirected to a curated section on the Swiggy app.

Scootsy is a one-stop pan-city delivery platform, which enables on-demand fulfilment of consumer needs. Scootsy, founded in 2015 by Rishi Khiani, Sandeep Das, Sanjay Ghai and Sunil Saraf, was acquired by Swiggy in 2018.

MG Motor, Tata Power To Set Up EV Chargers

Automobile manufacturer MG Motor India has partnered with a partnership with Tata Power to set up superfast electric vehicles (EV) chargers at dealership points across the country.

Tata Motors will install superfast chargers for EVs at select MG dealerships to offer end-to-end charging solutions. These chargers, which will have a capacity of 50 KW, accessible by both MG ZS EV customers and other EV owners with CCS/CHAdeMO charging standards. As of now, MG Motor India has in place 10 such chargers across five cities — Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, state-run Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) has announced that it is planning to install around 10K electric vehicles (EV) charging stations across India in the next two to three years.

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