Rapido Planning For Food Delivery Pilot In Bengaluru Soon: Report

SUMMARY

Rapido is in discussions with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut, as well as other quick service restaurant (QSR) chains and cloud kitchen chains

Sources confirmed that these chains have among the most dense networks of outlets in top cities from where deliveries of up to 5 km can be made

There’s a very large base of consumers to be tapped into where average order value will be not over INR 250, where Rapido will have its play

Ride-hailing platform Rapido is reportedly planning to launch a pilot programme for its quick food delivery service in Bengaluru soon.

An ET report, citing sources familiar with the matter, said that the company is in discussions with McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, quick service restaurants and cloud kitchen chains that see high order frequency.

Inc42 has reached out to Rapido for comments on the development. The story will be updated based on the response.

“Initially, the focus will be on delivering from larger restaurant chains for a shorter distance. These chains have among the most dense networks of outlets in top cities from where deliveries of up to 5 km can be made,” one of the sources was quoted as saying in the report.

The development comes about a month after initial reports revealed that the ride-hailing startup was engaging in discussions with restaurant partners to add food delivery services on its platform.

“Zomato and Swiggy have around INR 400-450 average order value (AOV) for their food delivery… and even though they’ve started low-cost, pocket friendly options to expand their total addressable market, there’s a very large base of consumers to be tapped into where AOVs will be not more than INR 250, where Rapido will have its play,” another source reportedly said.

It has been observed that these established players –Swiggy and Zomato – have tapped into the quick food delivery space with their labels such as SNACC and Bistro respectively, to retain their market share on the back of growing competitors in the sector.

In September, last year, the company was also looking to enter into India’s quick commerce space. Back then, TOI reported that the Bengaluru-based startup was in discussions with Zepto, along with grocers like Pincode and KPN, to analyse its shot in the sector.

So far, Rapido has been providing B2B logistics services limited to food delivery – Swiggy and the government-run Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).

On the ride hailing front, the startup announced plans to expand its footprint to 500 cities across the country from 120 currently, earlier this year.

On the financial side, the unicorn Rapido trimmed its loss by more than 45% to INR 370 Cr in FY24 from INR 675 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Operating revenue jumped 1.5X to INR 648.1 Cr in the year under review from INR 443 Cr in FY23.