Restaurant-aggregator tensions simmer as food delivery growth stalls

On January 22, restaurateurs across India gathered for a virtual town hall meeting hosted by the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI). The meet came hot on the heels of foodtech major Zomato’s third quarter results for the year ending March 2025 (FY25), which saw the platform post poor growth—just 2%, quarter-on-quarter, and lower than Zomato’s own forecast—in its core food delivery business, adding to the worries of already anxious restaurateurs.

Indeed, the town hall was held amid rising tensions between restaurants and food aggregators. In recent months, aggregators have entered the 10-minute food delivery space, which the NRAI claims could be built leveraging years of data from their food delivery marketplaces. This move, seen as a direct threat to restaurants, has deepened existing friction over foodtechs running private label brands and marks a new nadir in the aggregator-restaurant relationship.

Zomato and Swiggy have launched their own 10-minute food delivery ventures—Bistro (via Blinkit) and Snacc, respectively— after seeing the traction garnered by quick commerce unicorn Zepto’s offering, Zepto Cafe.