Food Delivery

Amazon throws down the gauntlet at Swiggy, Zomato

Aditi Shrivastava

March 19, 2021 | 7 Min Read

Amazon Food’s recent launch evokes memories of the discount wars that put out a number of well-heeled food delivery platforms

It’s hard to say yet if Amazon may have waited too long to start its food delivery business in India. After holding back last year for obvious reasons, the ecommerce giant launched the business earlier this month in Bengaluru, at least in some parts of the city.

The launch comes as India’s food delivery sector is staging a fast recovery from last year’s lows, with Swiggy and Zomato galloping back to pre-Covid levels.

To catch up, and it will be a long chase, Amazon’s brought out deep discounts and low commissions as its primary weapons, a throwback to a not-too-distant past that saw some well-financed companies bleed out of contention.

Amazon also has its trump card—its Prime service that covers video, audio, and fast deliveries for hundreds of thousands of subscribers in India—that it is linking to its food delivery service as well.

Corporate

Access unlimited content at a special discounted rate. Trusted by top VC’s and leading organizations, we provide bulk subscriptions for groups of 30+. Contact us for more details

Campus

Top educational institutions have collaborated with us for campus-wide subscriptions. For bulk campus-wide access, please get in touch.

Join our community of 100,000+ top executives, VCs, entrepreneurs, and brightest student minds

Trusted by the best

Karthik Reddy

Blume Ventures

The CapTable brings a refreshing set of insights for us at the Blume team, highlighting stories that bring together the underlying business and founders with that of investors' journeys with these startups. It's an important perspective that very few bring to startup ecosystem enthusiasts.

Latest Articles

India must build the electro-intelligence stack

Even as India turns its focus to the AI race, there's a growing opportunity to build for the electric stack—augmenting physical technologies like motors, pumps, and heat pumps with intelligence that makes them more efficient and responsive.

K Yatish Rajawat

Org Chart: Inside BigBasket’s C-Suite shuffles and tweaks for a quick commerce era

As BigBasket pivots to quick commerce, it has added leaders, built specialised teams, and freed founders to focus on strategy and fundraising. Yet even as it chases faster delivery and battles lost market share, it holds on to the cultural ethos built a decade ago.

Pranav Balakrishnan

ChatGPT at ₹399, Perplexity for free: Inside Big Tech’s AI subscription war for India

India is fast becoming global AI’s biggest playground. Big Tech is chasing mass adoption over monetisation with loss-leading strategies. But in a value-obsessed market, long-term sustainability lies in pricing sweet spots, bundling, and whether AI can become as essential as UPI or WhatsApp.

Sohini Mitter

From YouTube to Dalal Street: Inside PhysicsWallah’s public market play

Once dismissed as a scrappy YouTube channel, PhysicsWallah is heading for an IPO after becoming an unlikely survivor in India’s battered edtech sector. Its offline push, bold deals, and looming risks set the stage for Co-founder Alakh Pandey’s toughest exam yet: winning over public investors.

Nikhil Patwardhan

IPO ahead, Urban Company’s ‘all things home’ push meets growth–profitability test

Asia’s largest home services marketplace is reinventing itself as a multi-category giant ahead of its IPO. But in trying to be everything at once, does it risk falling into the same trap that forced Paytm back to its core?

Shivani Verma

Convinced that The Captable stories and insights
will give you the edge?

Convinced that The Captable stories
and insights will give you the edge?

Subscribe Now

Stories

Explore