Swiggy Bolt: Innovation or just old wine in a new bottle?

At a time when the buzz around 10-minute delivery is at an all-time high, IPO-bound Swiggy announced a 10-minute food delivery service called Bolt last week. This comes amid its quick commerce rival Zepto gaining traction with its own 10-minute food delivery service, Zepto Cafe.

Swiggy’s new initiative is significant in the pitched foodtech and quick-commerce battle given Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal’s recent admission that quick-commerce could potentially disrupt food delivery. “10-minute food can change the game if we get it right. I don't know who gets it right first, but if anybody gets it right first, we'll also be able to get it right,” Goyal said in an interview earlier this week.

In 2022, Zomato even experimented with 10-minute food delivery through its now-defunct Zomato Instant, which operated through “finishing stations” that stocked popular dishes from top restaurants. However, the service didn’t find the right product-market fit and was discontinued in early 2023. Now, its quick-commerce arm Blinkit is reportedly launching its own 10-minute food offering. Like Zepto, Blinkit also plans to deliver food from cloud kitchens housed within its dark stores.