Zomato launches 15-minute food delivery offering

Gurugram-based Zomato has launched a 15-minute food delivery service through its main app, offering quick deliveries from nearby restaurants, according to information on the company’s app.

The new service by Zomato is similar to Swiggy's Bolt, which the Bengaluru-based company has said now accounts for over 5% of its total food delivery orders.

Zomato’s 15-minute food delivery offering, through which it is covering restaurants in a limited radius of 1.5-2 km, has so far been rolled out only across a few regions, and sources said a rapid scale-up was underway.

Zomato-owned quick commerce firm Blinkit has also ventured into rapid food delivery by launching Bistro, through which it sells fast food and prepared meals from its dark stores.

Nexus Venture Partners-backed Zepto also operates in the 10-minute food delivery space through its Cafe offering.

Zomato did not comment on the development.

Following the success of quick commerce, through which firms such as Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and Bigbasket’s BB Now deliver groceries and other consumer goods in a 10-15-minute timeline, companies are looking at rapid delivery of food items.

This is Zomato’s second attempt at 15-minute food delivery after it shut down an experiment called Zomato Instant in 2023 and rebranded it to Everyday. Through Instant, Zomato was trying out rapid food delivery from centralised kitchens located close to the customer.

However, it revamped this service into Everyday – a home-style meal service through similar centralised kitchens. The company has scaled up the Everyday offering across major cities in India.

Zomato’s rival Swiggy launched Bolt in October 2024, and in December it scaled it up to 400 cities.

Zomato launching this service, for which Swiggy has seen customer validation, points to the potential for growth in this offering. Blinkit and Zepto have rolled out separate apps for their quick food delivery offerings.

ET had earlier reported that Zepto is scaling its Cafe business to hit an annualised revenue run rate (ARR) of Rs 1,000 crore within the next financial year.

Standalone rapid food delivery services such as Bengaluru-based Swish, which has raised capital from Accel, and Gurugram-based Zing are also operating in this space.

For both Zomato and Swiggy, while quick commerce is among the fastest-growing segments, food delivery still accounts for the largest portion of their revenues. Also, food delivery is the only profit-making segment for these firms.