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Tag: Food Delivery App

  • Zomato to acquire Blinkit, board approves the deal for Rs 4,447 crore

    Zomato to acquire Blinkit, board approves the deal for Rs 4,447 crore

    Mumbai: The board of online food delivery firm Zomato has approved the purchase of quick commerce company Blinkit, which was earlier known as Grofers. This deal has been done for Rs 4,447.48 crore.

    In the information sent to the stock market, Zomato said that this deal will be done under the exchange of shares. The board of directors of the company in a meeting held on Friday approved the acquisition of 33,018 shares from the shareholders of Blinkit Commerce at a price of Rs 13.45 lakh per equity share.  

    After the acquisition by Zomato, the Blinkit team and CEO Albinder Dhindsa will continue to run the company as an independent entity and app.

    Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal said, “We will explore ways in which Blinkit can benefit from Zomato’s large customer base (and vice versa in the long term). Post the deal closure, we are going to start experimenting with various ideas that we have and see which all bear fruit, including having the Blinkit tab on the Zomato app. As they say, experiment a lot and keep what works. This remains our guiding motto.”

    The quick commerce segment in India is estimated to grow to $5 billion over the next three years, which is a 16x jump from the current size of $0.3 billion. Thus, the deal can be a game changer for quick commerce space!  

    Let’s have a look at what, according to the industry experts, works in the favour after this deal and what works against!  

    What works in favour?

    Experts believe that the deal will lead to better utilisation of the delivery fleet for Zomato and also propel multiple orders per transit, which is a global norm for driving efficiency and bringing the delivery costs down. With this, the valuations of Zomato may inch up backed by this, as one can provide a separate valuation to this segment for now, given its strong growth prospects.

    It may also help Zomato to be better placed versus peers who are only into Q commerce, as they have a ready delivery fleet and will also help them compete with players like Swiggy who have made a very serious foray into this segment via Instamart.

    What works against?

    AOV (average order value) for this segment may be extremely low, which in turn will limit margins and capability to charge a higher delivery fee as delivery charge is linked to AOV.

    At the same time, AOV in this segment is low as this segment caters to buyers who would want products on an urgent basis; a customer may order 5-10 per cent of their monthly grocery requirements via this segment.

    India as a market is still predominantly driven by local Kiraana outlets (general grocery stores), within the vicinity, which would generally drive more than 90 per cent of grocery requirements.

    Moreover, industry experts think that Zomato will need to offer something very different in terms of user experience for Blinkit in order to compete with peers and scale up in this business segment. Further, this business model may not have a big potential in the smaller markets such as tier 2 and 3, as the demand for gourmet food is much lesser vs metros.

    Meanwhile, the closing of the transaction is expected to happen in early August. The transaction is subject to shareholders’ and stock exchange approval.

  • Swiggy elevates Phani Kishan Addepalli as co-founder

    Swiggy elevates Phani Kishan Addepalli as co-founder

    Mumbai: Swiggy has elevated Phani Kishan Addepalli, its vice-president for strategy and investments to a co-founder’s role, the food delivery app’s CEO Sriharsha Majety announced in a blog post on Monday.

    This will make Phani the third Swiggy co-founder, joining the original co-founders Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy. Another co-founder and chief technology officer Rahul Jaimini had exited in May 2020 to join Pesto Tech, a career accelerator startup.

    Phani’s elevation follows after the recent development of the company’s COO Vivek Sunder leaving in October. Majety will be overseeing the company’s food delivery business until they find a replacement.

    “Phani joined us very early on in 2015, and has been my fixer and go-to guy for many important problems for as long as I can remember. Over these 6 years, he’s probably had the record for setting up multiple high leverage functions from the ground up,” Majety wrote in the blog post.

    Majety said Kishan has played a key role in shaping the company’s value. “His energy, can-do attitude, and founder mentality are all goal-worthy for any Swiggster to succeed here and make a huge impact in the company’s future,” Majety wrote.

    “His approach to building new and enduring organisational capabilities (read superpowers) has always been a force multiplier for us, and I can’t wait to see him go on and take new challenges to build even more superpowers in the years to come,” Majety wrote.

    Kishan joined Swiggy in 2015 as general manager – strategy, analytics, CX & new initiatives. Prior to that, Kishan had a stint with companies like The Boston Consulting Group, ITC Limited, and Softeon.

  • “Leaked WhatsApp chat” gives a sneak-peek into Zomato’s birthday celebrations

    “Leaked WhatsApp chat” gives a sneak-peek into Zomato’s birthday celebrations

    MUMBAI: Known for its witty marketing campaigns, the food delivery app Zomato has once again sent social media into a tizzy, choosing an innovative way to give a sneak peek into the company’s birthday month celebrations.

    The Gurgaon-based food-delivery company turns 13 this month and has made big plans to celebrate its anniversary on 10 July. As part of its marketing outreach, the brand shared a screenshot of a purported “leaked WhatsApp chat”, that reveals conversations between its CEO and various departments, wherein they discuss their ideas to celebrate Zomato’s Birthday Month.

    The chat is a satirical take on the brainstorming sessions between the finance, marketing, and other departments with the company’s boss. The screenshot shared by Zomato shows the CEO initiating the discussion around the celebration with inputs from various teams. It depicts quite simply and hilariously how each department suggests a plan which doesn’t have a collateral effect on it, while also trying to thwart any suggestion which could potentially involve any risks for it or backfire on it later.

    While the marketing team merrily pitches a ‘ten-day holiday’ plan, the Boss puts in a timely reminder that it’s supposed to be a celebration ‘with the customers’. The growth team then generously comes up with a ‘BIG Discount’ idea to which the Finance team cautiously adds that it’ would be a good idea to have a discount ‘on the birthday’ only. But as the proposed discount gets bigger and gets extended to more number of days the finance team is no longer amused, till finally its unanimously decided to have an offer of “60 per cent OFF for the entire July ”. The chat ends with the finance team exiting the chat, declaring its disapproval.

    The screenshot of the quirky chat was shared by Zomato as a mailer to its customers as well as on the app’s social media handles across platforms. On LinkedIn, the post sparked a light-hearted banter between the company’s chief executive officer Deepinder Goyal, and its chief financial officer Akshant Goyal.

    This isn’t the first time that the Food delivery app has used this idea to draw users’ attention and start social media chatter. At the start of the year, Zomato had come up with a similar ‘leaked WhatsApp chat’ mailer, that ‘revealed’ conversations around ‘New year resolutions’ with the boss. The group chat, while fun to read, even managed to drive across the message that the delivery app is on point & prompt with its orders and deliveries.

    Now with its latest ‘leak’ revealing a “60 per cent discount”, the brand looks set to win more than just eyeballs for the month of July!

  • Zomato acquires Uber India’s food delivery business

    Zomato acquires Uber India’s food delivery business

    MUMBAI: Online food delivery app Zomato has acquired Uber’s food delivery business, Uber Eats, in India in an all-stock deal. According to media reports, the acquisition was carried out at a value of $350 million ( Rs 2,485 crore). Moreover, Uber has got almost 10 per cent stake in Zomato.

    Post acquisition, Uber Eats in India will discontinue operations and direct restaurants, delivery partners, and users of the Uber Eats apps will migrate to the Zomato platform, effective Tuesday.

    “We are proud to have pioneered restaurant discovery and to have created a leading food delivery business across more than 500 cities in India. This acquisition significantly strengthens our position in the category,” Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal said.

    “Our Uber Eats team in India has achieved an incredible amount over the last two years, and I couldn’t be prouder of their ingenuity and dedication, ” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said. He added Uber will continue to invest in growing its local rides business.

    Through this deal, Uber Eats India users now become Zomato users. Similarly, the delivery partners who were earlier associated with Uber Eats India will be on-boarded on Zomato’s fleet. The first big consolidation in online food delivery segment will pull Zomato ahead of Swiggy.

    The acquisition comes after Zomato’s latest fundraising led by existing investor Ant Financial, an Alibaba affiliate, which pumped in $150 million at a $3 billion valuation.

  • Zomato forays into online video space, to launch 18 original shows

    Zomato forays into online video space, to launch 18 original shows

    MUMBAI: The streaming war is not limited to media houses anymore. From e-commerce apps to online cab-ride services are also jumping on the band-wagon to keep consumers engaged. Now, food delivery app Zomato has announced its foray into web streaming with 18 original shows over the next three months.

    There will be a new 'Videos' tab available in the Zomato app, starting Monday. The new shows ranging from three to 15 mintues will be categorised by genre across shows, recipes and Sneak Peek restaurant stories. It will launch with over 2000 videos that includes Zomato Originals, which will be available to stream in India, while Sneak Peek and recipe videos can be accessed anywhere in the world.

    “We are constantly looking for new ways to engage our users around food. Most of our users visit our app several times a week. This presents us with an opportunity to further delight our users using Zomato Originals," Zomato CEO and founder Deepinder Goyal said in a statement.

    “We combined all things food with binge-worthy genres and came up with a diverse slate of shows,” Zomato senior vice president growth  Durga Raghunath said.“With shows in both Hindi and English, we hope every corner of India will tune in to Zomato to hone their taste buds ," he added.

    The company also said that the shows will be around food and will include comedy, reality, fiction, advice and celebrity interviews. The new shows include titles like Food and You with Sanjeev Kapoor, Banake Dikha with stand-up comic Sumukhi Suresh, Starry Meals with Janice, Grandmaster Chef with Sahil Shah, Race Against the App.