Swiggy Rolls Out UPI Driven Digital Payment Solutions For Its Delivery Partners

Homegrown food delivery company Swiggy has partnered with ICICI Bank to roll out two convenient and hassle-free digital payments solutions for its delivery partners.

Under this partnership, Swiggy’s delivery partners can use a Unified Payment Interface (UPI)-based solution for instant fund transfers on-the-go or choose to deposit cash at automated Cash Deposit Machine (CDM) available at ICICI Bank branches and ATM locations.

With these payments solutions, Swiggy aims to save time and distance travelled for its delivery partners.

Commenting on the partnership, Rahul Bothra, Chief Financial Officer, Swiggy said, “Our delivery partners are the backbone of Swiggy. We are constantly looking for ways to support the ease of operations by adopting superior technology, and the partnership with ICICI Bank on both the UPI solution and automated CDM will take this a notch higher. It will help achieve our shared objective of providing a great food experience to consumers in a seamless and convenient manner.”

Under UPI-based solution, Swiggy’s delivery partners will have their own UPI handle (VPA) to which they can link their savings bank account and start transacting by using digital UPI-enabled apps like BHIM, ICICI Pockets, Google Tez, PhonePe, PayTM among others.

ICICI Bank will credit the beneficiary (Swiggy’s) account instantly as well as send the delivery partner’s details to Swiggy, enabling it to update the collection against the delivery partner instantly.

Under the CDM facility, Swiggy’s delivery partners can visit the nearest ICICI Bank branch or an ATM location which is equipped with a CDM facility and deposit the money after a real-time authentication. The money gets instantly credited to Swiggy’s account and a confirmation of the transaction is sent to the delivery partner.

On the association, B. Madhivanan, Group Executive and Chief Technology and Digital Officer, ICICI Bank said, “We are delighted to offer our UPI platform to Swiggy which is one of India’s largest food ordering and delivery platform. The integration aims to bring about unparalleled convenience for Swiggy’s large fleet of delivery partners by reducing the need for travelling to their collection hubs to deposit the money. We believe solutions like these will help Swiggy’s delivery partners optimise their time and maximise efficiency.”

Swiggy Follows Reinvention Rule

As the company gorges on its $100 Mn Series F funding round led by Naspers and Meituan-Dianping, it has been following its promises of strengthening its market leadership position by introducing a host of unique and advanced products and services.

Earlier, in January 2018, reports also surfaced that Swiggy is in talks with Naspers and Tencent to raise $200 Mn in funding.

Recently in February, Swiggy introduced a new service, Swiggy Scheduled. This enables users to plan and order their meals for lunch, dinner, breakfast, or party menus in advance. With this service, the users can place their orders in slots of 30 minutes, a minimum of two hours and maximum of 48 hours in advance for a zero delivery or cancellation fee (before the order becomes live).

It has also continued its attempt to strengthen its foothold with services from cloud kitchen to introducing a new supply chain. Other host of features include Swiggy Access, long-distance deliveries, and Capital Assist.

On the business front, the company has posted a record increase of 500% in revenues in the last financial year and saw order volumes nearly double since its previous funding in May 2017.

Competition In Indian Online Food Delivery Market

With its host of services, Swiggy competes with players like Zomato, Ola-backed Foodpanda etc.

In November 2017, Foodpanda India claimed revenues of $9.6 Mn (INR 62.16 Cr) in FY 16-17, a 64% jump over the earlier $5.87 Mn (INR 37.81 Cr) in FY 15-16. It is also in talks to receive a $62.2 Mn investment from its parent Ola.

Gurugram-based Zomato raked in $200 Mn funding from Alibaba Group in the first week of February 2018. The latest funding round was led through Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group, a subsidiary of Alibaba that operates mobile and online payment platform Alipay. It also recently claimed 150K + users on its Zomato Gold facility.

According to a study by Netscribes Research, the online food delivery segment in India is expected to expand by 34%-36% between 2015 and 2020.  At present, India’s online food and service market is pegged at $2.9 Bn.

As the companies compete for a share of the $2.9 Bn pie, the partnership between ICICI Bank and Swiggy geared towards offering digital payments solutions to its delivery partners is bound to bolster the latter’s presence in the thriving online food delivery space.