Zomato-owned Blinkit is foraying into the quick food delivery space with its new offering Bistro, aiming to compete with Zepto Cafe and Swiggy’s Bolt. A separate mobile application of its new service is available for download for Android as well as Apple users.
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The app, which seems to be in the pilot mode, currently allows users to import contacts and addresses from their Zomato account. However, it shows delivery options only in select areas of Gurugram, where its parent is headquartered.
“Bistro by Blinkit is proudly brought to you by Blink Commerce Private Limited,” the company’s website says.
“Our mission is to redefine convenience with superfast delivery, helping consumers across India save time while enjoying seamless, high-quality experiences,” it adds.
Blinkit did not respond to FE’s queries till the time of going to the press.
This development comes just a day after Zepto announced that it would launch a separate application for its instant food delivery arm, Zepto Cafe. Swiggy has already rolled out a similar service “Bolt” in over 400 Indian cities.
Zomato experimented with a quick food delivery service under the name Instant in 2022. However, it was shut down in 2023.
In an interview earlier this year, Zomato’s CEO Deepinder Goyal said that 10-minute food can “change the game if we get it right”.
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“Blinkit is fast, but that has made Zomato seem slow. In some areas, we take 40 minutes to deliver and 40 minutes is very, very slow…So customer expectation is moving, and food delivery will have to change,” he had said.
The foray of Swiggy and Zomato into rapid food delivery may be to tackle the slowdown in the usual food delivery market.
“While quick commerce is growing much faster, the growth rate of food delivery is going down,” said Satish Meena, analyst at Datum Intelligence. “I think this is one way to make sure that the customers order more, especially for the last-minute needs.”
The potential of the quick food delivery service was also highlighted by the management of Bengaluru-headquartered Swiggy recently, saying it already accounts for 5% of the company’s food orders in just two months of the launch.
A rapid food delivery startup Swish has also recently raised $2 million from a clutch of investors, led by Accel. It has already started deliveries in some parts of Bengaluru.
Another analyst, who asked not to be named, said that Blinkit is a leader in quick commerce and it was “only a matter of time that it joined the food race as well”.
