Quick commerce not taking spotlight away from food delivery; experimentation will continue: Swiggy’s Rohit Kapoor

Quick commerce not taking spotlight away from food delivery; experimentation will continue: Swiggy’s Rohit Kapoor

• Swiggy says quick commerce growth won't impact focus on food delivery business
• Food delivery GOV grew 20.5% YoY in Q3FY26, fastest pace in nearly three years
• Swiggy's Q3FY26 revenue rose 54% YoY to Rs 6,148 crore despite widening net loss

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The rapid rise of quick commerce at Swiggy is not coming at the cost of focus or investment in its core food delivery business, said Rohit Kapoor, CEO of Swiggy's food delivery marketplace.

Addressing concerns that Instamart’s scale and visibility may be overshadowing food delivery, Kapoor said Swiggy’s strategy has never been about backing one vertical at the expense of another, but about building multiple large convenience-led businesses over time.

“Swiggy’s mission has never been to be a food-only company,” Kapoor told Moneycontrol, adding that the company’s goal is to solve for convenience across use cases. “In a 10-year lifespan of a company, you’re lucky if you can find one such opportunity to build a large, scalable business. We may end up building two — or even three.”

While quick commerce today represents a larger total addressable market than food delivery, Kapoor said this does not alter Swiggy’s commitment to growing food delivery as a standalone, long-term business.

Food delivery growth remains structurally independent

Kapoor said food delivery continues to operate on its own trajectory, irrespective of how other verticals perform.

“Food delivery is a 10-year business with two listed players and a certain trajectory that’s visible in the market,” he said. “That is independent of whether we are doing Instamart or not doing Instamart.”

The comments come after Swiggy reported 20.5 percent year-on-year growth in food delivery gross order value (GOV) in Q3FY26 — its fastest pace in nearly three years — alongside a 22 percent rise in monthly transacting users to 18.1 million. The company also reported sequential improvement in contribution margins and adjusted EBITDA margins in the food delivery business during the quarter.

Experimentation in food delivery will continue

Kapoor said Swiggy does not intend to slow experimentation in food delivery, regardless of how capital is allocated to other verticals such as quick commerce.

“Whenever we feel there is an opportunity to experiment, we have not stopped,” he said, pointing to initiatives such as Bolt, 99Store, Snacc and Toing. “If there is a strong idea and it requires interim investment, we are not shying away from it.”

Decisions around experimentation, Kapoor said, are taken on the merit of each initiative rather than being constrained by performance elsewhere in the business.

“At a company level, cash has to be used carefully, but we are sitting on a fairly strong balance sheet,” he said. “The question is always whether an initiative is the right one to bet behind, and how much to bet — not whether another vertical is doing better or worse.”

To be sure, similar formats launched by competitors have been equally cash intensive. Blinkit’s quick food venture Bistro, under Eternal, has reported losses of nearly Rs 150 crore over the past three quarters while generating under Rs 20 crore in revenue over the same period, Moneycontrol had reported earlier.

Instamart flags discount-led growth risks

Kapoor’s comments come even as Swiggy’s quick commerce arm Instamart has flagged heightened competitive intensity in the sector.

During the company’s Q3FY26 earnings call, Instamart chief executive Amitesh Jha said Swiggy would avoid chasing volume-led growth driven by heavy discounting.

“We are not going to throw good money at bad growth. We will never compromise on good growth for good margin,” Jha said.

Swiggy on January 29 reported that its net loss widened 33 percent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 1,065 crore in the third quarter (Q3) of financial year 2025-26 (FY26), up from Rs 799 crore in the same period a year ago.

Swiggy’s revenue from operations rose 54 percent YoY to Rs 6,148 crore in Q3, up from Rs 3,993.1 crore a year ago. It had reported a revenue of Rs 5,561 crore in the previous quarter.