Zomato to start 10-minute food deliveries, says founder Deepinder Goyal

As quick services catch up with food aggregator platforms, Ant Group-backed Zomato Ltd plans to deliver food in 10-minutes, the company’s founder Deepinder Goyal said in a blogpost on Monday.

 “After becoming a frequent customer of Blinkit (one of Zomato’s investments in the quick commerce space), I started feeling that the 30-minute average delivery time by Zomato is too slow, and will soon have to become obsolete. If we don’t make it obsolete, someone else will,” said Goyal in the blogpost. 

He added, “Innovating and leading from the front is the only way to survive (and therefore thrive) in the tech industry. And here we are… with our 10-minute food delivery offering – Zomato Instant. Zomato will pilot Zomato Instant with four stations in Gurugram from next month onwards, he added in the blogpost.

With quick commerce space for groceries heating up, platforms such as Swiggy Instamart, run by Bundl Technologies Pvt Ltd, Ola Dash, operated by Ola’s parent ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd and Zepto, operated by Kiranakart Technologies Pvt Ltd, among others are guaranteeing 10-minute deliveries 

Goyal's announcement comes days after it was reported that Zomato is in talks to merge with instant delivery service Blinkit (formerly Grofers) in an all-stock deal valuing Blinkit between $700 million and $800 million. Zomato had also extended a loan of $150 million to Blinkit in one or more tranches.

Incidentally, Zomato has been trying to make forays into the quick grocery delivery segment. In 2020 during the first Covid-19-induced lockdown, Zomato had started quick commerce business but had stopped operations in a couple of months. The company then made forays into the space with its investments in Blinkit. The company has invested over $100 million in Blinkit till date.