Ownly launches in Hyderabad, bets on lower-cost food delivery model

Hyderabad: Rapido’s newly launched food delivery business Ownly is seeing an average order value (AOV) of around Rs 250, nearly half that of listed rivals Swiggy and Zomato (Rs 400-420). Yet, Rapido co-founder Aravind Sanka is betting that a cost structure built around smaller-ticket orders can still make its food delivery business profitable.

Sanka said 85-90% of the cost of running the food-delivery business for existing aggregators is delivery, making logistics the biggest cost for the industry. The company is leveraging Rapido’s existing technology, teams and logistics network rather than building these capabilities separately.

The company is also betting that lower prices can bring new consumers into online food delivery with 15% of Ownly's new orders in Bengaluru coming from users who had never ordered food online before, Sanka said.


The mobility startup, backed by Prosus and WestBridge Capital, on Friday launched Ownly in Hyderabad, its second market after Bengaluru.

Ownly currently has 10,000 restaurants on board in Hyderabad, which it plans to scale up to 30,000.

By the next quarter, Ownly will further expand across all major metros and tier 1 cities including Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Surat.

Ownly runs on a zero-commission model and instead plans to primarily recover the cost of delivery through fees paid by consumers.

However, Ownly has not yet started charging delivery fees in Bengaluru, meaning Rapido is yet to start making money on Ownly. Sanka says the company will soon start levying delivery fee as its order volume gains traction in Bengaluru. Ownly is doing more than 50,000 orders a day in the city, around five months after its full-scale launch.

Sanka added that Ownly will not be chasing 10-minute delivery, though about 25% of its Bengaluru orders are delivered within 20 minutes. Rapido is also staying away from quick commerce for now, with Sanka saying food delivery is a more natural extension of its marketplace and asset-light logistics model.

On the overall business, Sanka said Rapido expects to turn profitable at the company level in the next financial year, while an IPO is “not on the radar,” he said.