Ola and Zomato will now compete for 10-minute food delivery

Following Zomato’s announcement of 10-minute food delivery last month, ride-hailing giant Ola has now entered the fray, with the company piloting the services in select Bengaluru and Gurugram pin codes. Ola has been providing instant food delivery services in some areas for quite some time. Ola Dash, the Bhavish Aggarwal-led firm’s recently announced quick commerce initiative, is responsible for the 10-minute food delivery.

A spokesperson for Ola confirmed that the ride-hailing giant has been testing its quick food delivery service in a few cities, but declined to provide further details. And when it comes to the new instant-food delivery model, Ola Dash’s dark stores network appears to be the key.

Dash is focusing on a’store-to-door’ 10-minute delivery service, which is currently spread across 200 dark stores and offers an assortment of over 2,500 stock keeping units, according to an earlier statement from the company. By the end of the year, the company hopes to have grown the business to more than 500,000 orders per day.

While announcing the firm’s 10-minute delivery option, Zomato’s CEO Deepinder Goyal said that the fulfilment of the company’s delivery promise will rely on its dense finishing station network, which is located close to high-demand customer neighbourhoods. Experts believe Zomato could have an advantage over a new entrant like Ola when it comes to instant food delivery because of its extensive tie-ups with cloud kitchens, algorithms based on most-demanded food items, and the ability to leverage its hyperlocal presence to drive its 10-minute delivery segment.

Zomato also recently announced the purchase of a 16.66 percent stake in Mukunda Foods, a food robotics start-up, for $5 million, in order to further its quick food delivery ambitions.

Mukunda Foods describes itself as a food robotics company that designs and manufactures products for QSR and cloud kitchens that automate cooking processes. These products allow restaurants to expand quickly while maintaining food quality and customer experience consistency across multiple locations. Mukunda also assists restaurants in becoming more efficient by lowering labour costs and reducing waste.

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