BigBasket pilots 10-minute food delivery with Starbucks, Qmin in Bengaluru

Grocery delivery firm BigBasket has entered the rapid food delivery segment, providing 10-minute food delivery service in select locations in Bengaluru.

It comes five months after cofounder and chief executive Hari Menon announced on X that the Tata Group-owned firm was expanding its services to food delivery in 2025. He had said in a post in December 2024 that BigBasket would increase its stock keeping units to more than 30,000 in all tier-1 cities, launch pharma deliveries with Tata 1mg, as well as launch a food delivery service.

Currently, BigBasket’s 10-minute food delivery includes items from Starbucks, a joint venture between Tata Consumer Products and Starbucks Corporation, and Qmin, a food delivery platform owned by Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL).

Launched in 2020, Qmin is Tata Sons-owned IHCL’s food delivery service, which has its own app allowing customers to order food from Tata-owned hotels and restaurants. The service also has Qmin cafe offering bakery and confectionery products along with beverage items across the country. There are 11 such cafes in Bengaluru.

Under its 10-minute food delivery service, BigBasket is offering beverages such as coffee, tea and juice, snacks, meal bowls and desserts.

ET had reported in February that Tata Sons wasn’t too pleased with what it regarded as BigBasket’s sluggish response to the rapid rise of quick commerce in the country. Tata Sons also indicated that BigBasket should seek external investors for a proposed round of $1 billion (Rs 8,556 crore) to mount a fightback in this segment, according to people aware of the matter.

10-minute food delivery race

Meanwhile, the rapid food delivery segment is seeing increasing demand as quick commerce platforms Zepto (Zepto Cafe), Swiggy (Snacc) and Blinkit (Bistro) are expanding their services and offerings.

During its earnings announcement for the fourth quarter of 2024-25, Zomato’s parent Eternal said that it was doubling down on Bistro, its in-house rapid food delivery service, and pivoting away from restaurant partnerships for this service. Bistro is being expanded across Delhi-National Capital Region, Bengaluru and Mumbai, according to people in the know. Bistro now runs more than 100 kitchens in these markets.

Swiggy, on the other hand, is scaling up its 10-minute food delivery service Bolt, which relies on select restaurant partners offering limited menus. It also has an offering similar to Bistro, which is called Snacc.

On May 23, ET reported that Zepto paused operations of its 10-minute food delivery vertical, Zepto Cafe, in several cities including Delhi, Agra, Chandigarh, Mohali, Amritsar and Meerut owing to supply chain issues. This impacted the operations of 44 Zepto Cafe stores.