Rapido, a popular ride platform in India, has begun quietly testing food delivery services in Bengaluru.
The startup a decade ago began testing its food delivery services in three major regions of Bengaluru: Balasandra, Tabalekele, Madiwara (BTM) layout, Hosur Saljapura Road (HSR) layout, Cora Mangala and Rapid co-found, Cora Mangala layout to Rapid Sanka Sanka Confiang Med, and Madiwara (BTM) layout.
Rapido has created a wholly owned subsidiary, Ctrlx Technologies, to launch a food delivery service named the owner. The subsidiaries list Sanka and Rapido Vivek Krishna's Vice President of Finance as directors, as per regulatory submissions reviewed by TechCrunch.
Sanka said there is no specific reason to establish a subsidiary. However, it could be a strategic move to avoid a potential conflict of interest with Swiggy, which currently holds a 12% minority stake in the ridehaling startup.
Swiggy recently confirmed in a letter to shareholders that it would revalue its investment in Rapido, citing a potential conflict of interest “which could occur in the future.”
Meanwhile, the owner of Rapido has released an Android app on Google Play, which offers food from nearby restaurants at around 15% lower prices than Swiggy or Zomato's.
Rapido's own food distribution app. Image credit: Owned
The price drop is the result of Rapido's model of not receiving fees from restaurants for other food delivery apps, including Swiggy and Zomato, and instead charges a fixed fee per order. The startup mentioned its fixed-paying approach in its restaurant proposal in June.
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Rapido has around 10 million vehicles across India, including 5-6 million motorcycles, and someone familiar with the startup business told TechCrunch recently. The company provides taxi and courier services, and uses a motorcycle fleet to deliver food.
Rapido avoids reducing fuel costs and delivery times for restaurants far from customers, curating app menu items to maximize margins while providing ample discoverability.
While handling Swiggy delivery, Rapido gained insights into peak and high demand restaurants. This is data that we use for our own food delivery services, investors said.
The Swiggy agreement does not prevent Rapido from using this data, but prohibits startups from entering into agreements with Zomato or other competitors, investors added.
Founded in 2015, Rapido started as a bicycle taxi aggregator before expanding to auto rickshaws, parcel delivery and third-party logistics. In 2023, it entered the CAB business to compete with Uber and local rival Ola. This segment has acquired traction in this segment with a subscription-based model and placed it as an alternative to the committee-based approach used by competitors.
Rapido has also partnered with Taiwanese battery swapping electric motorcycle manufacturer Gogoro to deploy its vehicles as bicycle taxis. Additionally, recent moves have helped startups boost their ratings and become unicorns last year.
India's online food delivery market is projected to surpass £2 trillion (approximately $23 billion) by 2030, according to a report released last year by Bain & Company and Swiggy. Zomato currently leads the market with a 58% share, while Swiggy holds the remaining 42% according to brokerage Motilal Oswal. Uber was one of the early players in the space with Uber Eats, which was sold to Zomato in early 2020.
So far, Rapido has raised $574 million in 13 rounds per Tracxn. It operates in over 250 cities and processes over 3.5 million vehicles every day. Startups count Prosus, Westbridge Capital, Nexus Venture Partners and Investments among the leading investors.