Why Zomato is buying Blinkit and what the merger means for the Indian food delivery market?

In a move that may drastically reshape the competitive landscape of India’s food delivery market, Zomato has announced it will buy Blinkit, a tech startup. This merger agreement results from a long-term partnership between Zomato and Blinkit and will make Zomato the dominant player in India’s food delivery market.

This merger not only strengthens both companies’ customer base but also brings Blinkit’s innovative technology to possibly become an indispensable part of the Indian food delivery experience. This is extremely relevant today, where customer convenience and ordering technologies are high priority for many businesses. Here we look at how this merger could change India’s food delivery market.

India’s Zomato and Blinkit reach merger agreement – TechCrunch

Zomato is a leading Indian food delivery and restaurant discovery service founded in 2008. The company is widely known for allowing users to search for restaurants, read reviews, and order food for takeout and delivery.

Recently, the company announced that it has agreed to acquire Blinkit, a well-known tech startup based in Mumbai. This merger could significantly impact the Indian food delivery market, and we’ll discuss it in detail below.

Zomato’s History

Founded in 2008, Zomato is a leading Indian multi-service dining platform. Originally, it was created as a website to share restaurant reviews listed by its users and provide food lovers with better dining experiences. However, Zomato expanded into online ordering and delivery services over the years, becoming India’s largest food delivery platform. It currently offers services in 24 countries and over 500 cities worldwide.

In November 2020, Zomato announced that it would acquire Blinkit Pte Ltd., Singapore – a food tech start-up providing companies with customised marketing solutions for their restaurants’ takeaway and delivery businesses. Through this acquisition, Zomato hopes to strengthen its foothold in the Indian F&B market by offering more varied services to its partners – something that would be hard for any of its rivals to match.

The merger of two disparate companies brings together expertise and business knowledge. By joining forces, both Zomata & Blinkit aim to usher into the ‘Post CoVid19’ era with plans to further digitise India’s already burgeoning restaurant industry. The merger will also likely mean intense competition among other industry players like Swiggy, who vied for dominance in the Indian F&B market. In this way, industry consolidation and increased competition are inevitable under the dynamic integrated offerings of businesses such as those helmed by Zomato & Blinkit combined.

Zomato’s Business Model

Zomato is an Indian-based online platform that provides extensive information on restaurants and nightlife spots, covers twenty-four countries worldwide, and serves over fifty million users globally.

Initially started as an online platform for scrutinising restaurant reviews and scanning menus, Zomato has since evolved into a business model that provides customer food delivery services. Zomato’s food delivery service runs across its global presence of 24 countries with the help of its partnerships with various local vendors from each country.

Furthermore, major Indian cities such as Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) are serviced by Zomato’s fleet of delivery personnel known as ‘Zomato Delivery Partners’ (ZDP). This fleet currently consists of 17000+ strong base of 10K+ riders and 3K+ active in-restaurant partner employees such as order takers and runners. Customers can also place orders via their phone apps or websites by selecting restaurants nearby. Once the order is placed, customers can track its progress till it arrives at their doorstep.

Apart from this, Zomato also offers an advertising service that allows businesses to promote their listings on their digital platform to gain visibility amongst their diverse user base worldwide. Additionally, users can access exclusive discounts or offers based on food listings available via Zomato partners or other third-party alliances. All these services have allowed Zomato to become one of India’s most popular online platforms for discovering dining options near them with over 71 million monthly active users in 2018.

What is Blinkit?

Blinkit is a digital delivery platform founded in 2018 to make the dining experience more convenient for restaurants and customers. It provides restaurant home delivery and operates in major Indian cities like Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai.

With the recent completion of its merger with Zomato, Blinkit stands to be one of the biggest players in the Indian food delivery market. This article will focus on Blinkit’s significance to the ongoing merger with Zomato.

Blinkit’s History

Blinkit was founded in April 2019 by 5 budding entrepreneurs, Pankaj Batra, Sachin Jain, Abhimanyu Agarwal, Ashish Bansal and Gaurav Medatwal. The Gurugram-based technology company has since successfully raised two funding rounds by notable investors such as Matrix Partners India and Tree Line.

Since its inception, Blinkit’s vision has been to bring together users and local restaurants through its smart mobile platform. It facilitates real-time delivery through “no interruption” technology for establishments to easily order food for customers. Its cutting edge technology enables a streamlined flow of various activities conducted locally within each establishment such as the taking of orders from customers and the delivery of orders from restaurant partners in an efficient manner. Its delivery time is incredibly fast (usually around 30 minutes) due to its optimization of partner restaurants’ inventory settings on their app platform.

The company certainly established itself in the food delivery market, catering to numerous cities/zones across Indian metropolitan areas such as Bengaluru, New Delhi and Mumbai. They acquired a steady user base throughout their growth period, eventually leading them to become one of the most sought after food tech companies in India.

Blink It’s Business Model

Blinkit is an Indian food delivery startup that was founded in 2018. The company has grown rapidly over the past three years and competes with Swiggy, Zomato, UberEats and others in India’s highly competitive food delivery space.

Blinkit has a unique business model that differentiates it from its competitors. It leverages a network of freelancers to fulfil orders which helps the company manage costs and reduce operational complexity. Furthermore, Blinkit provides its customers with a concierge service for special meal delivery requests such as eating at restaurants without having them leave the comfort of their own home or any other special request.

In addition, Blinkit also sells restaurant management software which it provides to several well-known restaurants across India while also offering catering services to corporate clients in selected cities through its dedicated fleet of vehicles.

Blinkit is particularly known for being flexible with payment options; customers can generally pay in cash, via digital wallets or even on credit cards when ordering online through the Blinkit mobile app or website.

The Merger

On Wednesday, the renowned Indian food delivery and restaurant search platform, Zomato, announced they had entered into a merger agreement with fellow Indian startup, Blinkit. The merger marks a major milestone in India’s food delivery industry and could have far-reaching implications for the market.

This article will delve into the details of the merger, why Zomato chose this move and what it could mean for India’s food delivery market going forward.

Reasons for the Merger

The merger of India’s two leading food delivery startups, Zomato and Blinkit, was announced by TechCrunch earlier this month. The move has brought together two of the most influential tech startups in India’s fiercely competitive food-ordering industry.

There are several reasons for the merger. Firstly, it will help Zomato to expand its already considerable operations. The company serves over 100 cities throughout India, but with the addition of Blink It’s network of restaurants and delivery services, they can extend their reach even further.

The second reason is that with their combined forces, Zomato and Blinkit have the potential to become an even more formidable opponent to Swiggy, currently India’s largest online food delivery platform. The joint venture allows them to benefit from each other’s strengths. While Zomato has an established presence in larger cities across India, Blinkit primarily focuses on smaller cities where demand for takeaway and home-delivery is much larger. By combining their efforts and leveraging each other’s resources they could become an unstoppable force in the market.

Finally, the merger gives both companies access to more capital than either would have had on its own based on their respective market positions; this will provide them with increased spending power when it comes to investing in technology and expanding into new markets or launching new services across the country. It should also enable them to execute promotional campaigns more effectively and offer a wider range of products at competitive prices — something which may attract new customers away from rival platforms such as Swiggy or FoodPanda.

Impact of the Merger

The merger between India’s leading food delivery company Zomato and digital network Blinkit will likely have far-reaching implications for the overall Indian food delivery market.

For starters, the merger could lead to higher customer engagement for both companies. With the combined expertise of two market leaders in the industry, customers will get access to a vast range of services shortly—from streaming restaurants information to ordering meals online. Furthermore, this increased customer engagement may also lead to more efficient delivery systems and better pricing structures that are attractive to customers.

In addition, the merger may pave the way for a more complex logistics network within online food delivery services. By pooling their technical know-how and resources together, both companies can develop more sophisticated infrastructures, including smart algorithms and bots that generate recommendations relevant to customers’ preferences.

Integrating new tracking technologies may also lead to increased user safety and improved product offerings from local businesses. Moreover, by creating a larger reach across multiple cities in India, this merger can provide better access for delivery partners and faster deliveries for users alike.

Considering all these factors, Zomato’s acquisition of Blinkit will transform India’s digital landscape significantly and revolutionise how people order their meals across India shortly!