Swiggy Extends Financial Aid Package Worth INR 63 Cr To Its Restaurant Partners

Food delivery startup Swiggy is extending financial support to its restaurant partners at a time when the restaurant and hospitality industry is reeling out of the financial distress caused by a global pandemic.

In a statement, Swiggy has pledged to assist its restaurant partners in the recovery and revival of their business by offering benefits worth INR 63 Cr under its Jumpstart 2.0 program.

The Jumpstart initiative was originally launched in June 2020 which aided over 50,000 restaurants partners in recovery and growth post the impact of Covid-19.

Reports indicate that in the past year, a third of the restaurants listed online have permanently shut down and a significant percentage are yet to recover fully. 

However, the restaurant industry has shown some recovery since February 2021. According to Swiggy the number of new restaurants joining online deliveries have spiked since the start of 2021. Swiggy said that is today onboarding an average of 8,000 new restaurants on the platform every month–the highest it’s ever been.

As part of the Jumpstart 2.0 initiative, Swiggy is offering restaurant partners benefits such as:

• Enhanced visibility of restaurants for consumers up to 12 kilometres, driving additional business
• Bi-weekly payment to enable better cash flows particularly for small-medium restaurants
• Facilitation of attractive business loans for restaurant partners as part of Capital Assist Program

Swiggy’s restaurant partners will also have access to additional funds through growth aids for reinvestment in ads and promotional offers to recover their lost business post Covid. They can also choose business booster packs like customized discounts, visibility plans for ads to unlock greater sales.

Paul Varghese, VP – Supply, Swiggy said that just as restaurant businesses were recovering from the impact of the first wave last year, the second wave dealt another blow with lockdowns and on-ground restrictions affecting dine-ins. 

“This puts tremendous pressure amongst restaurateurs to keep their business afloat and pay rents and salaries. Cognizant of their concerns, Jumpstart 2.0 has been specifically designed to support our restaurant partners in their revival stories. Partners opting for growth aids, advertising packages and offers are witnessing a 10-15% jump in orders already,” added Varghese in a statement. 

Note that Swiggy’s decision to expand Jumpstart program for the second time in 2021 comes after a series of backlash from the restaurant and hospitality industry which has blamed aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato for eating into their revenues. 

Restaurant lobby and advocacy group National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) had also recently filed complaints with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) seeking the regulator’s investigation into alleged anti-competitive practices by Swiggy and Zomato.

The second wave of covid-19 in which ravaged the country’s economy and healthcare systems largely impacted small and medium-sized businesses. Small and medium-sized restaurants had to depend heavily on food delivery aggregators such as Zomato and Swiggy to make even minimal revenue.

Although dine-in revenues for restaurants are yet to pre-pandemic levels, the restaurant industry has banded together to open their own direct ordering channel without depending on aggregators. Inc42 had earlier written in-depth about how technology startups such as Thrive, DotPe, and POSist have been working closely with the restaurants to build the feature.