Ola 10-min Food Delivery: After Zomato, Ola pilots 10-min food delivery; Swiggy may explore faster deliveries too

Ola has begun offering select food items in certain parts of Bengaluru within 10 minutes through its quick commerce grocery delivery arm Ola Dash. Items on the menu include khichdi, pizza and rolls, which Ola described as “freshly prepared”.

Swiggy is also exploring faster food delivery, though it isn’t clear if it is targeting delivery in 10 minutes.

Interestingly, Ola will use the facilities of food robotics startup Mukunda Foods, which recently
picked up $5 million from Zomato for a 16.66% stake.

Mukunda Foods has clients across top cloud kitchens as well as standalone eateries and will play a key role in fuelling Zomato Instant, the company’s 10-minute food delivery service.

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Mukunda Foods chief executive Eshwar Vikas said the company did not have an exclusivity clause with Zomato and was working with all three firms.

The company makes machines that it says reduce cooking time by 20-50% for Chinese and Indian dishes.

Swiggy has also held talks with Mukunda Foods to use its smart robotic equipment to automate food preparation in its cloud kitchens for some of its private labels, Vikas said.

According to sources, Zomato has already taken one food station in Gurugram live for making 10-minute food deliveries within a small set of users.

A company spokesperson, however, said it had not yet gone live but is expected to do so soon.

Zomato has ordered several machines from Mukunda Foods for about 15-20 “cooking facilities”. The average cost of a machine is about Rs 1.5 lakh.

Zomato Instant is piloting across four locations in Gurugram starting this month.

The move, announced by chief executive Deepinder Goyal, was criticised for allegedly putting pressure on delivery partners and forcing them to drive dangerously. Goyal, however,
denied this was the case, saying Zomato would use algorithms that predict demand levels, and robotics to deliver food in 10 minutes.

ET was the first to report about
Zomato’s 10-minute delivery ambitions on March 22.

Ola confirmed that it had been piloting 10-minute food delivery for a while.

Swiggy did not respond to ET’s queries.

Both Swiggy and Ola previously tried shorter delivery times for cooked food during the first quick commerce boom in 2015-16.