Zomato joins quick food delivery space with 15-minute delivery service

Deepinder Goyal, CEO, Zomato

Food delivery major Zomato has launched its own 15-minute food delivery service in select cities, amid heightening competition in quick food delivery space.

While the company has not made an official announcement, a dedicated tab for “15-minute delivery” has appeared in Zomato’s explore page. The service offers quick to prepare and ready to eat dishes from select restaurant within a two-kilometer radius.

Several food and grocery delivery companies have recently launched their own quick food delivery services as an increasing number of users warm up to the idea of 15-minute food deliveries. Zomato’s Bengaluru-based rival Swiggy, which entered the space with the launch of Bolt, has unveiled a new app, Snacc, promising delivery of quick bites, beverages and meals in 15 minutes.

Swiggy had, so far, housed all its offerings, food delivery, quick commerce, hyperlocal delivery, dining out, under one main app. However, the company launched Snacc after competitors came up with similar offerings – including Blinkit’s bistro and Zepto Café.

This is Zomato’s second attempt at 15-minute food delivery. The company had previously launched Zomato Instant in 2022 as a pilot project in Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR to offer ten-minute food deliveries, before disabling it in January 2023 as it struggled to grow the service. The company later restarted quick food deliveries under Everyday.

However, scaling quick food deliveries has admittedly been a challenge for Zomato. In an interview with Moneycontrol in October last year, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal said that finding restaurant partners is a hurdle.

“Zomato Instant was not the right product market fit (PMF). Zomato Everyday, which is 10-minute deliveries, has a slightly better model…We're adding some canteen type food to that (Zomato Everyday). Simple samosas, puffs, cream rolls and others which can be delivered in 10 minutes,” he had said.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of players have entered the 15-minute food delivery space in the past months. These include established delivery platforms like Magicpin, and BigBasket, as well as new entrants like Ola, and hyperlocal startups Swish and Zing.

Despite the entry of several new players in the rapidly growing space, analysts are of the view that competitive intensity is unlikely to increase further.

“The success of 10-min quick commerce service has likely increased the consumer expectations to expect food delivery in 10-minutes….(However) as of now, we don't expect competition in this space to pick-up. We estimate unit economics to be lower than food delivery, given lower average order values (AOVs)/lower volumes, as of now,” BofA Securities said in a recent client note.