 "Race for instant food heats up: Blinkit launches Bistro to rival Zepto Cafe")
In a strategic move to capture the burgeoning quick food delivery market, Zomato’s quick-commerce subsidiary, Blinkit, has introduced ‘Bistro’, a platform promising delivery of snacks, meals, and beverages within 10 minutes. The launch came just a day after rival Zepto unveiled its initiative, the Zepto Cafe. Currently, Bistro is accessible on the Google Play Store, with plans to roll it out on the Apple App Store in the future, according to media reports.
Blinkit’s Bistro is seen as the rival of Zepto Caffe. This is the second such attempt by Zomato to try in the instant food and grocery delivery segment. Earlier, Zomato had launched Zomato Instant which was shut later, according to a report by Moneycontrol.
Blinkit expands into quick meals
Blinkit, the quick-commerce grocery subsidiary of Zomato, launched its new app, Bistro, on the Google Play Store on December 6, 2024. The app is designed to deliver ‘snacks, meals, and beverages in just 10 minutes’.
In the instant food delivery segment, this is an addition to Swiggy’s Swiggy Bolt and Zepto’s Zepto Caffe. Notably, all these apps do not sell proper meals but they sell readymade food items and snacks such as samosas, sandwiches, coffees, pastries and other items.
Blinkit’s decision to launch a new app focused solely on food comes at a time when rapid delivery companies are increasingly prioritising food delivery to explore additional revenue streams, beyond groceries and other items delivered within 10 minutes.
Last month, Swish, a rapid food delivery company, secured $2 million in funding from Accel and several angel investors to compete with Swiggy’s Bolt, Zomato Everyday, Blinkit’s Bistro, Zepto Cafe, and other similar services.
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Next growth frontier in food delivery
Zepto reported that its Cafe platform received 30,000 daily orders, while Swiggy mentioned that 5 per cent of all its orders came from Bolt which delivers quick-to-prepare meals. In interviews with Moneycontrol, both Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal and Swiggy CEO Sriharsha Majety had said that the 10-minute food delivery sector is the “next growth frontier.”
According to data and business intelligence platform Statista, the online food delivery market in India is expected to generate revenue of $43.78 billion in 2024. This is projected to grow at an annual rate of 15.61 per cent from 2024 to 2029, which will lead to a market volume of $90.43 billion by 2029.
In the grocery delivery sector, India is anticipated to see significant growth, with revenue expected to increase by 30.7 per cent in 2025. The market volume for grocery delivery is projected to reach $30.65 billion at the end of 2024. On a global scale, China is expected to lead the online food delivery market, generating the highest revenue of $448.90 billion in 2024.