Zomato In Talks With Restaurants, Cloud Kitchens For Ultra-Fast Delivery

SUMMARY

The discussions between Zomato and other restaurant partners are in the initial stages and the plan is to offer delivery of food within 10 minutes

Zomato is likely to begin pilots from April in a few cities, starting from Gurugram

To achieve the ‘10 minutes food delivery’ plan, Zomato is looking at various models including its restaurant supply arm–Hyperpure or renting out new facilities

Food delivery giant Zomato is in talks with several existing restaurant partners and cloud kitchens to roll out ultra-fast food delivery. The plan is to offer food delivery in ten minutes.

The discussions between Zomato and other restaurant partners are in the initial stages and the plan is to offer delivery of food within 10 minutes to customers, an ET report stated.

Zomato is likely to begin pilots from April in a few cities, starting from Gurugram. It had briefly experimented with a 10-15 minutes food delivery plan in Bengaluru last year.

The ET report further added that the company intends to offer instant delivery, and currently, it has kept target to deliver under 20 minutes depending upon cuisine and location.

To achieve the ‘10 minutes food delivery’ plan, the food-delivery startup is looking at various models including its restaurant supply arm – Hyperpure or renting out new facilities. In continuation to that, it is considering models where its restaurant partners can offer select menu items directly.

The move comes at a time when Zomato announced its plans to invest $400 Mn in the quick commerce category.

The company recently also approved a loan of $150 Mn to grocery delivery startup Blinkit. The two companies are also looking at a merger valuing Blinkit at around $700 Mn, reports suggest. Prior to this, Zomato had infused $100 Mn in Blinkit.

Blinkit competes with the likes of Swiggy’s Instamart, Zepto, BigBasket and Dunzo in the quick commerce space, with the likes of Amazon and Flipkart also experimenting with quick deliveries of grocery and household items.

Last year, Zomato had also invested $75 Mn in logistics startup Shiprocket.

On the other side, after Zomato’s listing, its arch-rival Swiggy is also heading for an IPO. According to reports, Swiggy is looking at a $1 Bn IPO by early next year. Valued at $10 Bn, Swiggy is also in the final stages of acquiring Times Internet-backed restaurant booking platform Dineout in a $200 Mn deal to add restaurant discovering booking features.