Online grocery delivery firm Grofers, which promises its customers instant delivery in just 10 minutes, has now also changed its name to Blinkit amid rising competition in the quick commerce space.
The rebranding seems to suggest that Grofers will deliver products with the blink of an eye.
The development happens at a time when the company is in talks to raise $500 million in a fresh round of funding from existing investor Zomato.
In a recent interaction with Moneycontrol, Albinder Dhindsa, founder and chief executive officer said that the company was doing 1.25 lakh orders on a daily basis.
He also said that 10 minutes delivery was not just possible but a must in today’s fast-paced life so that people have time for more important things.
"Once upon a time, a few months ago, we started on a journey to build the future of commerce with 10 minute delivery of most of the stuff our customers need in their daily lives. Today, we already process over a million orders a week, across 12 cities in India. And this is just a start," Dhindsa said in a blog on December 13.
"We learnt a lot as Grofers, and all our learnings, our team, and our infrastructure is being repurposed to pivot to something with staggering product-market fit – quick commerce. Today, we are surging ahead as a new company, and we have a new mission statement – “instant commerce indistinguishable from magic”. And we will no longer be doing this as Grofers – we will be doing it as Blinkit," he added.
Grofers, in which Zomato already has a strategic stake, competes with Swiggy’s Instamart, BigBasket, Dunzo and upstart Zepto.
"Rebranding helps only when what is on offer is reinvented for the new future and new demands of the new consumer as well. If their service can match the demand of instant commerce, they sure will succeed," said Harish Bijoor, founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
The rebranding happens at a time when most of the rivals are hoarding capital to compete in the cash guzzling sector.
Zepto, which recently raised $60 million in its first institutional round of funding, is already in talks for its next big round.
Grofers is now Blinkit.Delivering your everyday essentials in a blink of an eye. @letsblinkithttps://t.co/27oH7lHHj3
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) December 13, 2021
Swiggy said it was clocking more than one million orders per week and would start 15-minute deliveries to top cities by January 2022.
Instant grocery is a large market and has the potential to almost triple the number of orders as compared to food delivery, Aadit Palicha, co-founder and CEO of Zepto told Moneycontrol in an interaction in November. On an industry level, the food delivery sector generates around three million orders per day in India.
As it happens, Blinkit also has plans to deliver items beyond grocery. In fact it has already started delivering items such as electronics and cosmetics.
"Our approach is to see what consumers need in 10 minutes and fulfil those needs. We leverage a lot of local information because we have local partners who run these businesses. We get to know what sells in every locality. So, to that end, we are 10 minutes first – we will deliver anything that consumers need in 10 minutes," Dhindsa told Moneycontrol in November.
