New 10-minute food delivery startup emerges in India, targeting impulse consumers

Bengaluru-based Swish recently raised $2 million from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Accel, with participation from Urban Company’s Abhiraj Bhal and Varun Khaitan and former Swiggy Instamart chief Karthik Gurumurthy, among others.

Gurugram-based Zing has launched an Android and iOS app, which aims to deliver a variety of meals and snacks within 10 minutes around the clock, with exclusive discounts and real-time order tracking, according to its app description. Early-stage venture capital firm 100x.vc invested in the company last year.

“Ten-minute delivery is on the rise because it caters to impulse users who prioritize convenience, just like quick commerce. The overall impulse market is very large and poised for massive growth.” Elara Capital analyst Karan Taurani Karan Taurani said.

Although Swiggy’s $The Rs 11,300-crore IPO in November was seen as a cause for celebration for the food tech ecosystem, with Zomato’s possible inclusion in the benchmark Sensex stock index in December further adding to the excitement.

Swish co-founder and CEO Aniket Shah said the idea to start a business in this space stemmed from the need to meet the growing demand for faster food delivery.

“We realize that express commerce was initially seen as just a convenience but has now become indispensable as people are looking for faster solutions to meet their daily needs. However, despite progress in other categories, But delivery times are typically between 30 and 60 minutes, which doesn’t meet the urgency that customers now expect, especially those who want to eat,” Shah told us Mint.

emulate success

These new companies hope to learn from the long-established food delivery startups Swiggy and Zomato, which started from humble beginnings and grew into well-capitalized public companies within a decade and became integral to the urban and semi-urban household ecosystem part of.

Swiggy recently launched Bolt, a feature that promises food delivery from selected nearby restaurants in 10-15 minutes. After trying out Zomato Instant, Zomato is now looking to launch fast delivery services for snacks like samosas and chai through its fast commerce arm Blinkit. Mint reported last month.

Zepto’s cafe business is expanding rapidly, with at least 140 new cafes opening every month.

“Already arrived $The revenue was Rs 160 crore and our stores accounted for only 15%. By next year, we think it will hit $“If we expand this to all dark stores, it will reach Rs 1,000 crore,” said Aadit Palicha, co-founder and CEO of Zepto. Mint in an interview earlier this week.

Express grocery delivery, commonly known as express commerce, is growing exponentially, with gross merchandise value (GMV) increasing from $500 million in FY20 to nearly $3.3 billion in FY2024, according to a September report from private markets platform Chryseum Advisors . GMV is expected to reach US$9.9 billion in the next five years.

For Swiggy and Zomato, their fast commerce units Instamart and Blinkit respectively are one of the key focus areas, with both companies rapidly expanding dark stores and maintaining large cash reserves, suggesting that 10-minute food delivery may be a natural opportunity .

However, 10-minute food delivery is more complicated. Since a limited number of items can be prepared in minutes, the feature may be limited to ready-made snacks and drinks from nearby restaurants. Additionally, Elara Capital’s Taurani said scaling up will be difficult.

“I don’t think 10-minute food delivery is a good proposition at scale as some popular items like pizza, burgers and biryani do not arrive in 10 minutes. This is only for sweets and bakery A few categories like food,” he said.

But Shah of Swish plans to expand its food options by operating a revamped cloud kitchen.

“We operate optimized and adapted cloud kitchens or ‘joy centres’ as we call them, and control the entire process of fresh food preparation and delivery within a 1.5-2km radius to ensure food reaches the consumer with the best quality, temperature hands. And time.”

Shah said Swish plans to have 150 joy centers in Bengaluru by March 2025 and expand to other tier-1 cities.

Swiggy, on the other hand, focuses on serving quickly prepared meals at popular restaurants and fast food outlets within a 2 km radius of consumers.

Can it accommodate a third?

While emerging companies see a gold mine of opportunity, whether there’s room for a third-largest food delivery company remains a moot point.

Swiggy and Zomato have outperformed long-established and well-funded hyperlocal delivery players such as TinyOwl, Foodpanda and PepperTap, growing in scale and visibility through acquisitions of companies such as Scootsy (Swiggy) and Runnr (Zomato).

Taurani said smaller businesses, if successful, could be targeted by giants like Swiggy and Zomato, which have the wherewithal to scale given their industry expertise and cash-rich balance sheets.

Shah, on the other hand, said the Indian consumer market is big enough for many companies, especially as the total addressable market (TAM) continues to expand.

“While the existing players have done a great job in expanding the food delivery market, we believe the incremental demand for food delivery that can be met through immediate delivery of food is much greater than the current TAM. I believe that as the As we continue to expand, we are creating a new TAM,” he said.

As India’s food delivery market expands rapidly, it is expected to span $This number is set to touch Rs 200 crore by 2030 (according to Bain and Swiggy reports) and consumers can expect an increasing number of companies to come in and provide them with the convenience they crave.