Inside Rapido’s plan to upend Zomato and Swiggy’s hard-won food-delivery math
The post Inside Rapido’s plan to upend Zomato and Swiggy’s hard-won food-delivery math appeared first on The Ken .
On 7 August, a delegation from Swiggy visited Bengaluru to meet with the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), which represents over 500,000 restaurants across the country. The NRAI had been seeking a meeting for over a year, but Swiggy had been reluctant to cooperate. The NRAI's list of grievances against Swiggy included high commissions (35-40% after accounting for ads and discounts), non-consensual discounting, and unresponsive account managers during disputes.
The NRAI now demanded specific operational changes, such as mandatory OTP-based consent for promotional discounts, refunds on unauthorized deductions, and a capped, written commission structure. If Swiggy did not address these issues by 1 September, restaurants threatened to withdraw from the platform.
The NRAI's newfound ally was Rapido, a food-delivery company. In July, the NRAI signed a memorandum of understanding with Rapido's food-delivery arm, Ownly. Rapido had recently secured a $240 million investment from Dutch investment firm Prosus, demonstrating confidence in India's digital economy. Rapido had already disrupted the ride-hailing market, challenging Uber and Ola.
Now, in the food-delivery space, Rapido aimed to upend the long-standing dominance of Zomato and Swiggy, two companies that together control the majority of India's food-delivery market.
Written by urgent.news from The Ken's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
