When Grofers raised $100 million from Zomato in July last year, its employees started viewing the food delivery giant as their parent company. The technicalities — Zomato held only a 10% stake at this point — didn’t matter as they saw signs of an imminent change.

Soon, Grofers rebranded itself as Blinkit and shifted its business model from private label-focused, next-day dispatch of groceries to delivery in 10 minutes.

“You see when conversations about a pivot to quick commerce started to happen within the company sometime in May-June, the writing on the wall was clear. The business was being reset to build what Zomato wanted,” said an engineering team member at Blinkit, requesting anonymity. 

An acquisition made sense for both companies. Quick commerce was the only thing missing in Zomato’s game, while strategy-hopping Blinkit needed a fresh beginning after the nth stumble. However, the timing wasn’t right.