Tata Neu starts food delivery via ONDC in Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR; pan-India launch by mid-May

Tata Neu is working closely with Zomato-backed Magicpin on its ONDC integration

Tata Digital super app Tata Neu has gone live with the food delivery category through the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru, while it is likely to go live in three more top tier metros by next week and pan-India by middle of May, according to people aware of the developments.

Although Tata Neu users in other cities like Mumbai and Kolkata are not being shown the food delivery option yet by default, changing the app location to other cities by users in Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR could show the feature.

"How Tata Digital has handled currently is that on their parent app, the entry point for food entry would be visible to any customer who has a Delhi-NCR or Bengaluru address saved in the parent app. But if he changes location after entering the food delivery (by) magicpin experience, he can order in any other city as well," said a person close to the developments.

Tata Neu is working closely with Zomato-backed Magicpin on its ONDC integration. The Gurgaon-based startup is helping the Tata company as a technology service provider for the frontend as it did with fintech major Paytm and cab aggregator Ola with their ONDC integration.

Moreover, Magicpin is also the largest seller-side platform on ONDC in terms of restaurant onboarding, having brought more than 50,000 eateries to the network. It has signed up on ONDC for three roles — technology services provider, seller-side app and buyer-side app.

Tata Neu hasn't responded to Moneycontrol's queries on the matter.

We were the first to report the salt-to-steel conglomerate's foray into food delivery via ONDC. The idea behind the entry into food ordering is to develop a ‘high-frequency use case’ to bring consumers back to the app regularly.

This will give a chance to Tata Neu to cross-sell its other products on the app — across categories like apparel, jewellery, grocery, electronics and flights. The app might eventually be integrated with ONDC for other categories, depending on how consumers receive it.

The ONDC project at Tata Neu is led by Gaurav Porwal, a senior vice- president at Tata Digital, the arm in the sprawling conglomerate that houses its acquired consumer internet businesses such as online grocer BigBasket and online pharmacy 1mg.

Amid reports of the conglomerate planning a fresh billion-dollar fund infusion in Tata Digital, the company’s net loss widened to Rs 5,553 crore in FY23 from Rs 2,945 crore in FY22. Its revenue rose 69 percent to Rs 26,984 crore in FY23 from Rs 15,996 crore in FY22, according to its annual financials filings sourced from PrivateCircle Research.

Although the Tata Group super app went live in April 2022 amid much fanfare, industry players said it has not lived up to the hype. While some are of the view that it lacks the ‘move fast and break things’ culture of the internet world, others pointed out that the ‘super app’ idea was flawed to begin with.