With the coronavirus crisis drying up the state coffers, the opening of the Alcohol shops was the only way to make quick and easy money for the government. The national capital usually makes Rs 3,500 crore per month from liquor sales, but due to the lock-down, Karnataka made a record in a day of Rs 197 crore. Hence, the online-delivery of alcohol in India was looked at as an opportunity to boost the economy.
Alcohol consumption in India reached 6.5 billion liters in 2020. The steady increase in consuming these beverages can be attributed to multiple factors including the rising levels of disposable income and a growing urban population among others. This was seen as an opportunity by food delivery startups-Zomato and Swiggy for making alcohol available for home delivery.
long queues outside wine shops after 40 days of nationwide lock-down
No wonder when India witnessed liquor sales worth crores of rupees on the first day of the shops reopening since the nationwide lock-down came into force on 25 March, it also saw social distancing rules being flouted with people lining up till kilometers outside the shops.
“By enabling home delivery of alcohol in a safe and responsible manner, we can generate additional business for retail outlets while solving the problem of overcrowding,”
Anuj Rathi, vice-president – products at Swiggy, said in a statement. Credits to the huge demand for alcohol in India the government approved of the idea and on the 4th of June, Swiggy launched home delivery of Alcohol in West Bengal, soon after in Jharkhand and Orissa.
Now, to piece together the back-story of e-delivery of liquor and wine in India, there is some question that needs to be answered, such as, is this online delivery of alcohol legal and how is it managed. Well, we have answers to all your question.
As huge demand for alcohol in covid lockdown, and social restrictions, online wine shopping in india became need of the time.
But, First of all, The question is How and by Whom is the Liquor Business in India Regulated?
India’s alcohol drinks market was worth almost $27.2 billion in 2018, according to the most recent figures from the London-based research group IWSR Drinks Market Analysis.
Liquor is a matter of the state and its business is firmly regulated by the Excise department of each state and the government regulates the supply of liquor in a state. In some states, retail sales are done by government-owned shops and for other states, the government is just a bulk supplier and the retail is managed by licensed private bodies. For some states, alcohol sales are divided between their own and private outlets.
consumption (in billion liters) of alcohol in India during years 2016-2020
States that allowed Home Delivery of Alcohol in India
Thanks to the massive demand for alcohol in India even during a global pandemic, several states have allowed the online delivery of alcohol just to push the people back inside their houses. Zomato and Swiggy have already launched e-delivery of alcohol in Jharkhand and Orissa and are going to deliver in West Bengal shortly, whereas Delhi is on their radar too.
What was the reason behind the approval for E-Delivery of Liquor during a Global Pandemic?
There are several legal formalities to be looked at by the state government for the online delivery of alcohol. But the states swung into action when on the 8th of May the Supreme court observed that the states should find ways for online delivery of alcohol because of concerns over social distancing due to COVID-19.
The state government suggested multiple reasons for the approval of online delivery of liquor, for example, the Orissa government expressed its concerns over the long queues outside the liquor shops also informing that there was a great demand for it among the people.
How will these Companies manage the E-Delivery of Alcohol?
To ensure the safe delivery of alcohol with the compliance of all the laws, Swiggy has come up with measures such as age verification and user authentication before accepting the orders. Customers can provide the required data followed by their selfie which the platform will use for verification using an AI-powered system. The delivery persons will have to carry an identity card with them for validation and their details must be submitted with the state government and the customer’s age verification is a must at the time of the delivery.
All orders will carry a unique OTP which would be required to provide by the customer at the time of delivery. There will also be curbs on the order quantity to ensure that customers are not bulk-purchasing.
How are these Platforms going to Price the Alcohol?
To prevent overcharging, the Orissa government is maintaining a list of retailers with the maximum price f different brands of alcohol. The delivery charges would be fixed at Rs.100 on orders worth Rs.1000 and for amounts beyond that, for every Rs.500 the charges will increase by Rs.25 having a maximum limit of Rs.300 on delivery. This process will be similar for other states as well.
Swiggy and Zomato work with the Retailers
How are Swiggy and Zomato going to work with the Retailers In-spite of their Tech Adroitness?
The biggest challenge in front of these food delivery startups would surely be the different set of rules of different states. All the states in India have different retail rules, different taxes, prices, and different age limits for the consumption of alcohol varying between 18-25 years.
Where, a month ago, Indians were browsing on the internet as ‘how to make alcohol at home’, the last few weeks have been the fuel of the locked-down economy’s engine has kept everyone in India going.
“Alcohol is necessary for a man so that he can have a good opinion of himself, undisturbed be the facts.”
Finley Peter Dunne had once said. The Coronavirus crisis must have been an end for several small businesses, but has also appeared as an opportunity for various other business. E-delivery of liquor is one such massive opportunity that will open new dimensions and will earn enormous revenues.
Indian Premier League is considered and seen more like a festival in India than just a cricket tournament. This sporting event creates a lot of joy and enthusiasm in the country. It is a cricket tournament which is conducted every year in the country between certain cricket clubs.
With the 14Th edition of IPL is just around the corner, Let’s look at the sponsors of IPL 2021.
List of All the Brands that are Sponsoring IPL 2021
Title Sponsor of IPL 2021
Vivo
Vivo is the title sponsor of the tournament. Last year due to the Indo-China issues the Title sponsor was removed from the list. This year the smartphone company is back as the title sponsor of IPL 2021 and it will be called as Vivo IPL 2021.
Vivo is the Title sponsor of IPL 2021
Tata Safari
Tata Motors is one of the biggest car manufacturing company of India. Tata has sponsored their new car Tata Safari for the top players to win this season of Vivo IPL 2021.
Media Rights of Vivo IPL 2021
Star Sports
Star Sports have the media rights for the tournament. This means that you can view the match only through the channels of the star media company. This year Star Sports have signed 14 sponsors for Vivo IPL 2021.
Dream 11 is an Indian-based fantasy sports platform. Dream 11 is the first Indian gaming company to enter into the Unicorn Club. The company was founded in the year 2008. The platform lets you play fantasy football, cricket, hockey, basketball, and many other games. Dream 11 is one of the co-presenting sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Byju’s
Byju’s is an Indian-based Multinational ed-tech company. The company is located in Bangalore. It was founded in the year 2011. Byju’s is the world’s most valuable ed-tech company. Byju’s was a sponsor of IPL 2020 as well. They are also the co-presenting sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
PhonePe
PhonePe is an Indian financial technology and payments company. PhonePe is also headquartered in Bangalore India. The company was acquired by the e-commerce firm Flipkart. The company was founded in the year 2015. PhonePe is one of the co-presenting sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Justdial
Justdial is a company that helps you to search for different services in India. The company was founded in the year 1996 and is located in Mumbai. Justdial is also one of the co-presenting sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Co-powered Sponsors of IPL 2021
Upstox
Upstox is one of the largest stockbrokers in the country. They are a discount stockbroker which is backed by Ratan Tata. Upstox is one of the co-powered sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Vimal Elaichi
Vimal Elaichi is considered to be a product used as a mouth freshener. They are also signed up as one of the co-powered sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Bingo is a brand of ITC limited. ITC is an Indian MNC which is headquartered in Kolkata. ITC has a wide range of products and brands under them. Bingo is one of the brands under ITC which provides packaged chips. Bingo is one of the associate sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Cred
Cred is aa Indian-based mobile application which lets you pay your credit card bills. It was started in the year 2018 and is located in Bangalore. Cred is one of the associate sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Havells Fans
Havells is an Indian-based electronic equipment manufacturing company. Havells fans is a brand under Havells that manufactures and sells fans. Havells fans is also one of the associate sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Garnier Men
Garnier is a cosmetic brand of L’Oréal. It is a French based cosmetic company. Garnier Men is a brand which manufactures products for men which include facewash, shaving creams, etc. Garnier Men is also one of the associate sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Kamla Pasand
Kamla Pasand is a brand that sells pan masala. They are famous for their tagline which is Anokha Swaad. They are also one of the associate sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI)
Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) is an organization in India which maintains the industry standards in the Mutual Funds sector of the country. AMFI was established in the year 1995. AMFI is one of the associate sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Frooti
Frooti is a mango flavored drink that is sold in India. It is manufactured under the company Parle Agro. Frooti was launched in the year 1985. It is one of the successful products manufactured by Parle Agro. Frooti is one of the associate sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Pharmeasy
Pharmeasy is an Indian company which involves in the delivery of pharmaceutical products such as medicines. They have signed up as one of the associate sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Livspace
Livspace is an Indian company that involves in interior designing and renovation. The company was founded in the year 2014. They have also signed up to be one of the associate sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Swiggy
Swiggy is an online food ordering and delivery app. It is India’s largest food delivery app. The company was founded in the year 2014 and is located in Bangalore. Swiggy is one of the associate sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Parle Agro
Parle Agro is an Indian MNC. They own the brands such as Frooti, Appy, Hippo, Bailey, and many more. They have signed up to be one of the associate sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Unacademy
Unacademy is an Indian online educational technology company. It was started as a YouTube channel and later launched as a company in the year 2015. Unacademy is one of the associate sponsors of Vivo IPL 2021.
Asian paints is an Indian MNC. They are involved in the manufacturing, selling, distribution of paints. They are also involved in coating, home décor, etc. The company was founded in the year 1942. Asian paints is one of the new sponsors joining the list this year.
Thumps Up
Thums Up is a soft drink company that was launched in India under the brand Cola. It was first introduced in the year 1977, later the company was re-launched by Coco-Cola to compete with Pepsi. Thums Up is also a sponsor for Vivo IPL 2021.
Vodafone-idea
Vodafone Idea is a telecommunication company which is located in Mumbai. Both the company runs the business together under one brand Vi. They are also a sponsor of the 2021 Vivo IPL.
Mondelez
Mondelez is an American MNC which is located in Chicago. The company deals with food, confectionery, beverage, snacks, etc. They are also a new sponsor of the 2021 Vivo IPL.
Amazon Prime
Amazon prime is an OTT platform that is run under the e-commerce giant Amazon. It is one of the most common OTT platforms used by Indians and other people across the globe. Amazon Prime is also one of the sponsors of the 2021 Vivo IPL.
Groww
Groww is an Indian-based platform. The company provides a platform for online investments. The platform has more than 10 million registered users. It is one of the growing mobile platforms in the Finance and Insurance Industry of the country. They are also a sponsor of Vivo IPL 2021.
Disney + Hotstar
Disney + Hotstar is an OTT platform in India. They also have the media rights which will let you watch the live matches on their platforms if you have a VIP or premium subscription.
The platform has signed 10 sponsors for IPL 2021. They have signed up some common sponsors such as PhonePe, AMFI, and Dream 11. The other companies which have signed up have been mentioned below.
Mumbai Indians Sponsors
DHL Express
DHL express is an international courier packaging and express delivery service company. DHL express will be one of the principal sponsors of Mumbai Indians and they will also be backing the team this season.
Samsung
Samsung is the famous smartphone manufacturing company. It is one of the companies which has a major share in the smartphone market of India. Samsung is also one of the principal sponsors of Mumbai Indians
Jio
Jio is a telecommunication company which operates under Reliance Industries. Jio is one of the largest and top most telecom company in India. Jio is the principal sponsor of Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Kings Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad. The company is also one of the associate sponsors of Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore,
Astral Pipes
Astral Pipes is an Indian based pipe manufacturing company. It is one of the best pipe manufacturing company in the country. Astral Pipes is also one of the associate sponsors of Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore,
Marriot Bonvoy
Marriot Bonvoy is a chain of hotels. It has a presence globally and it is one of the largest hotel chain company in the world. Even Marriot Bonvoy will be one of the associate sponsors of Mumbai Indians.
Official Partners of Mumbai Indians
USHA, Dairy Milk, Kingfisher Calenders, Mai Dubai, Colgate, William Lawson’s Music CDs, Dream 11, MakeMyTrip, Kotak, Performax, ESA, Radio City 91.1 FM, Fever 104 FM, Boat and DNA Networks are the official sponsors of Mumbai Indians for Vivo IPL 2021.
BKT tyres
BKT tyres is one of the tyre manufacturing company which is located in Mumbai, India. They will be one of the companies backing the Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, team this season. They are also the associate sponsors of Chennai Super Kings
PhonePe
PhonePe will be one of the companies backing the Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore this season.
Royal Challengers Bangalore Sponsors
Muthoot Fincorp
Muthoot Fincorp is a subsidiary company of Muthoot Blue. Muthoot fincorp provides financial services. They are the title sponsors of RCB for the 2021 IPL season
Puma
Puma is a MNC which manufacturers sports apparels, casual and sports shoes. They are one of the principal sponsors of RCB for the 2021 IPL season.
Myntra
Myntra is an Indian-based e-commerce platform. Myntra was acquired by Flipkart an Indian-based e-commerce giant. Myntra is also one of the principal sponsors of RCB for the 2021 IPL season.
Exide
Exide is an Indian-based battery storage manufacturing company. They also provide life insurance services. Exide is also one of the principal sponsors of RCB for the 2021 IPL season.
Nuvoco DP World
Nuvoco DP world is a logistics company. The company is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Nuvoco DP World is one of the principal sponsors of RCB for the 2021 IPL season.
MPL
Mobile Premier League (MPL) is a mobile application. It is one of the e-sports platform of India. MPL is one of the associate sponsors of RCB. MPL is also a principal sponsor of Kolkata Knight Riders.
MAX Life Insurance
Max Life Insurance is an Indian-based company that provides insurance services. It is one the largest insurance company in India. Max Life Insurance is one of the associate sponsors of RCB.
Lifebuoy
Lifebuoy is a brand which manufactures soap under the company Hindustan Uniliver Limited. Lifebuoy is also one of the associate sponsors of RCB.
Official Partners of Royal Challengers Bangalore
MakeMyTrip, Kingfisher Calenders, MediBuddy, DNA Networks, Mai Dubai, MILO, ON – Optimum Nutrition, Swiggy Instamart, EUME, boat, NVY, Royal Challengers Sports Drink, iB Cricket, Dark Fantasy, Dava India, and Rainbow Milk are the official sponsors of Royal Challengers Bangalore for Vivo IPL 2021.
Chennai Super Kings Sponsors
India Cements
Indian Cements is an Indian-based cement manufacturing company. The company is headed by N. Srinivasan who is the former Chairman of International Cricket Council. Indian Cements is the principal sponsor of CSK.
The Muthoot Group
The Muthoot Group is an Indian-based multinational Conglomerate. It is located in Kochi, Kerala. The Muthoot group is the principal sponsor of CSK.
Clear Shampoo
Clear is a brand under the company Uniliver which manufactures anti-dandruff shampoo. Clear is also one of the principal sponsors of CSK.
Nippon Paint
Nippon Paint is an Indian-based paint manufacturing company. The company was founded in the year 1881. Nippon Paint is one of the principal sponsors of CSK.
Dream11
Dream 11 is an associate sponsor of CSK for Vivo IPL 2021. They are also principal sponsor of Kings Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
EUME
EUME is a lifestyle company under Avon Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd. EUME is also an associate sponsor of CSK for Vivo IPL 2021.
Equitas
Equitas small finance bank is a bank which is located in Chennai. Equitas Small Finance bank is also an associate sponsor of CSK for Vivo IPL 2021.
Boost
Boost is an energy drink company which was established in the year 2001. Boost is one of the associate sponsors of CSK for Vivo IPL 2021.
Mai Dubai.
Mai Dubai is a bottled water plant which is located in Dubai. Mai Dubai is one of the associate sponsors of CSK for Vivo IPL 2021.
Official Partners
Muthoot Precious Metals Corporation, Nasher Miles, Cover It Up, Levista, The Souled Store, Sonata, FanPlay IoT, iB Cricket, Lupisafe, Hello FM, NAC Jewellers, Lilliputian Hub, boat, ASAP, SEVEN, Fast&Up, NOVA, Fever FM, Kaadoo are the official sponsors of Chennai Super Kings for Vivo IPL 2021.
Delhi Capitals Sponsors
EbixCash
EbixCash is one of the leading financial exchanges in India. EbixCash is one of the principal sponsors of Delhi Capitals. They are also the title sponsor of Kings Punjab.
JSW Group,
JSW cement is a subsidiary company of JSW group which is located in Mumbai. JSW cement is involved in the manufacturing and distribution of cement. JSW is also one of the principal sponsors of Delhi Capitals.
APL Apollo Steel Pipes.
Apollo Steel pipes is a brand under Apollo which is involved in the manufacturing of pipes. Apollo pipes is also one of the principal sponsors of Delhi Capitals.
Official Partners
Colgate, Bodycare, Nissan, Dream11, Kotak, BKT, boat, Coca Cola, Jio, acko, OkCredit, BondTite (Astral Adhesives), Livinguard, and FanCode Shop are the official sponsors of Delhi Capitals for Vivo IPL 2021.
Rajasthan Royals Sponsors
Expo 2020 Dubai
Expo 2020 is a world expo that is hosted in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Expo 2020 Dubai is the Principal sponsors of Rajasthan Royals.
Nine Sanitary Napkins
Nine Sanitary Napkins is a leading brand for female menstrual products. They are one of the principal sponsors of Rajasthan Royals.
TV9 Bharatvarsh
TV9 Bharatvarsh is a channel which comes under the company TV9. They are also one of the principal sponsors of Rajasthan Royals.
KEI Wires & Cables
KEI Wires and Cables is an Indian-based wires and cable manufacturing company. KEI Wires and Cables are also the KEI Wires & Cables
Colgate
Colgate is a toothpaste brand of India. Colgate is the associate sponsor of Rajasthan Royals.
BigBasket
BigBasket is an Indian-based online grocery delivery service. BigBasket is also one of the associate sponsors of Rajasthan Royals.
Official Partners
Kingfisher, Dream11, BKT, Yellow Panther, Sportz Interactive, ia (Interactive Avenues), epiphany, UAE City 1016, Big FM 92.7, Fandom, FanCode Shop, The Souled Store, Gully and PLUS are the official sponsors of Rajasthan Royals for Vivo IPL 2021.
Kings Punjab Sponsors
Royal Stag Music CDs
Royal Stag is an Indian-based Whisky brand which was launched in 1995. Royal Stag Music CDs comes under the company Royal Stag. They are one of the principal sponsors of Kings Punjab.
Fena Detergent
Fena detergent is a brand which comes under the company Fena. Fena detergent is involved in the manufacturing of detergent products. They are also one of the principal sponsors of Kings Punjab.
Boat
Boat is an Indian-based consumer audio and lifestyle brand. Boat is a principal sponsor of Kings Punjab.
Official Partners
Stylam, BKT, Colgate, CocaCola, FanCode Shop, T10 Sports, and Kingfisher Premium are the official sponsors of Kings Punjab for Vivo IPL 2021.
Kolkata Knight Riders Sponsors
Official Partners
Mai Dubai, Kingfisher Calander, BKT, iB Cricket, Lux Cozi, TV9 Bharatvarsh, Astral Pipes, JIO, Royal Stag Music Cds, Greenply, Colgate, Suniti Industries Ltd, Boat, Cricfig, Fanhood, The Souled Store, Gully and Medimix are the official sponsors of Kolkata Knight Riders for Vivo IPL 2021.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Sponsors
JK Lakshmi Cement
JK Lakshmi Cement is a brand under JK organization which involves in the manufacturing and marketing of cement. JK Lakshmi Cement is the title sponsor of Sunrisers Hyderabad.
TCL
TCL is a Chinese-based electronics company. It is one of fastest growing electronics company. TCL is one of the principal sponsors of Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Ralco Tyres
Ralco Tyres is one of the best tyre manufacturing company in India. They produce a wide range quality tyre. Ralco tyres are one of the principal sponsors of Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Valvoline
Valvoline is an Indian-based company which provides engine oils that is fully synthetic and the best diesel fuel additive. Valvoline is also one of principal sponsors of Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Nerolac paints
Nerolac paints in an Indian-based paint manufacturing company. It is the largest paint manufacturing company and the third largest decorative paint company in India. Nerolac Paints is also one of the principal sponsors of Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Official Partners
Jai Raj Steel, Colgate, Kotak Bank, Spektacom, FanCode Shop, Tyka, iB Cricket, Tenali Double Horse and Mai Dubai are the official sponsors of Sunrisers Hyderabad for Vivo IPL 2021.
FAQ
Who sponsored first IPL?
DLF sponsored first IPL 500 million Indian rupees between 2008 and 2012.
Who is the title sponsor of IPL 2021?
The title sponsor of IPL 2021 is Vivo.
Is IPL 2021 Cancelled?
No, IPL 2021 will be played at six venues in India, which is scheduled between April 9 and May 30.
Conclusion
These are the companies and brands which have signed up to be the sponsors of this year’s IPL. Sanjog Gupta, Head – Sports, Star India, had said that “Vivo IPL 2021 is returning to Indian soil with a lot of anticipation across the country” while launching the IPL campaign on 15 March 2021.
With the tension escalating at the Indo-China border, the Chinese-funded companies in India are currently at risk. The people of India are now boycotting Chinese manufacturers and organizations that sell their products in India. As a result, Indian startups funded by Chinese investors are also facing severe backlash.
Among India’s top 30 companies and startups (entrepreneurial ventures worth over $1 billion), 18 have received funding from the Chinese.
Chinese investors are quick in identifying the potential in Indian startups. They find investing in India enticing because India has an attractive risk-return trade-off and remains the second-fastest growing economy in the world. Chinese investors have funded over 18 Indian unicorns; it amounts to around $3.9 billion in investment in 2019. But the growing conflict between the two countries is making it challenging for these unicorns to receive further investment capital from China.
BigBasket is an Indian online grocery delivery service. Alibaba invested in BigBasket in 2018. The investment assists BigBasket in competing with the US-based Amazon and India’s Flipkart. The company’s valuation exceeded $1 billion with the help of Chinese investment. The decision to boycott Chinese products affected BigBasket in several ways.
Dailyhunt
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
Dailyhunt – Chinese Investment In India
Dailyhunt is one of the fastest-growing startups in this list. Dailyhunt is an Indian news content aggregator. It is considered as one of the world’s top mobile applications for staying abreast of the latest happenings across the globe. With 22 million users and 30 billion page views per month, Dailyhunt has indeed cemented its status in the Indian startup ecosystem. Alibaba holds an investment in Dailyhunt.
Healofy
Chinese Investor: Ant Financial
Healofy – Chinese Investment In India
Healofy is India’s largest women-oriented social network; it helps women connect with other women. Healofy raised $1 million in seed fund from Omidyar Network in 2018. Healofy then received $8 million in fresh funding from Alibaba-backed parenting platform BabyTree Group and BAce Capital, a fund anchored by Alibaba’s Ant Financial.
Paytm Mall
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
Paytm Mall – Chinese Investment In India
Paytm launched the Paytm Mall app in Feb 2017. Paytm Mall follows a business to consumer model. It is an e-commerce platform that allows consumers to shop from 1.4 lakh registered sellers. Alibaba invested in Paytm Mall for a 40% stake but refused to fund Paytm Mall further. Paytm is one of the biggest e-commerce organizations to be featured in this list of Chinese-funded companies in India.
Paytm
Chinese Investor: Ant Financial
Paytm – Chinese Investment In India
Paytm is an Indian e-commerce payment system and financial technology organization. Paytm was valued at $10 billion in January 2018. Paytmvaluation was $16 billion in 2021. Ant Financial has become the largest shareholder in One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, by investing $680 million.
TicketNew
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
TicketNew – Chinese Investment In India
TicketNew is a privately owned company that provides online ticket booking services for movies, theatre plays and sports. Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba has reportedly provided over $30 million in funding to TicketNew and has acquired the ticket booking platform..
Vidooly
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
Vidooly – Chinese Investment In India
Vidooly is an online video analytics and marketing company. It provides video analytics tools and video marketing services. Vidooly raised over INR 15 crores from the Alibaba group.
XpressBees
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
XpressBees – Chinese Investment In India
XpressBees is an e-commerce logistics firm that offers delivery, order management, shipping, and tracking services. Founded in 2015, XpressBees secured over $35 million in funding from Alibaba in 2017. Again in 2019, the e-commerce giant invested $10 million in the logistics starteup.
Snapdeal
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
Snapdeal – Chinese Investment In India
Snapdeal is an Indian e-commerce behemoth. Snapdeal received over $500 million in funding from three of Asia’s largest tech companies: Alibaba, Foxconn, and SoftBank. Snapdeal is another e-commerce giant that made it to this list of Chinese-backed companies in India.
It is an Indian restaurant aggregator and food delivery start-up that provides information, menus, and user-reviews of restaurants. Zomato also offers food delivery options from partner restaurants. Zomato has raised over $150 million from Alibaba.
BYJU’s
Chinese Investor: Tencent
BYJU’S – Chinese Investment In India
BYJU’S is an Indian educational technology (edtech) and online tutoring firm. It is considered as the largest ed-tech company in the country as well. Tencent, one of Asia’s largest valued Chinese tech company investor, has invested in Byju. The amount invested on the ed-tech was undisclosed.
Ola
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Ola – Chinese Investment In India
Ola Cabs is an Indian ride-sharing company offering services that include peer-to-peer ridesharing, ride service hailing, taxi, and food delivery. Ola was founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and Akit Bhati. Ola raised over $1.1 billion in funding from Tencent.
Doubtnut
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Doubtnut – Chinese Investment In India
Another ed-tech company, Doubtnut is an Indian online tutoring platform. Doubtnut operates as an e-learning platform that enables users to ask questions related to Physics, Chemistry, and Math. Tencent provided over $15 million funding to Doubtnut in the year 2020..
Dream11
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Dream11 – Chinese Investment In India
Dream11 is a fantasy sports platform that allows users to play fantasy cricket, hockey, football, kabaddi, and basketball. Tencent has a $100 million investment in Dream11 in the year 2018. Dream11 has become the first Indian gaming company to enter the unicorn club.
Flipkart
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Flipkart – Chinese Investment In India
It is an Indian e-commerce company based out of Bangalore, India. Flipkart was founded in 2007 and has been one of the e-commerce giant in India by serving . Chinese investor Tencent Holdings have invested more than $300 million in Flipkart.
Niyo
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Niyo – Chinese Investment In India
Niyo is one of India’s largest and fastest-growing fintech ventures with the vision of making banking simple, smart, and transparent for everyone. Niyo got its funding from Tencent, although the amount raised were not disclosed to the public.
Gaana
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Gaana.com – Chinese Investment In India
It is the largest Indian commercial music streaming service. Gaana.com was founded in 2012. Gaana raised over $115 million from the Chinese internet giant Tencent. Again in 2020, Tencent invested $50 million and in 2021 another $40 million on the music streaming app.
Khatabook
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Khatabook – Chinese Investment In India
Khatabook is a mobile app targeted towards small shopkeepers and kirana store owners in India. Khatabook app helps them manage their books by tracking the money owed to them through the means of a digital ledger. Tencent has invested over $75 million in Khatabook app.
MX Player
Chinese Investor: Tencent
MX Player – Chinese Investment In India
MX Player is an entertainment app that offers its viewers quality, digital-first content, it is a very popular OTT service in India for giving access to many exclusive content to it audinence. MX Player gained popularity as an Indian OTT platform. Tencent has invested over $11q million in MX Player in the year 2019.
MyGate
Chinese Investor: Tencent
MyGate – Chinese Investment In India
MyGate is an India-based security and community management app for gated premises. The security management startup raised an undisclosed amount from Chinese tech company Tencent in the year 2019.
Pine Labs
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Pine Labs – Chinese Investment In India
Pine Labs is an fintech startup and an Indian merchant platform company. Pine Labs provides financing and last-mile retail transaction technology through its help your business can accept different modes of payment. Tencent has invested and undisclosed amount in Pine Labs.
Pocket FM
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Pine Labs – Chinese Investment In India
Pocket FM is a social audio platform for Indian languages where users can find great quality audio content comprising audiobooks, stories, and podcasts. Tencent invested in this entertainment app, although the amount invested was not disclosed to the public.
Practo
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Practo – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
It develops and distributes medical information systems. Practo Technologies Private Limited offers an online software platform that provides automated appointment scheduling, billing solutions, and storage of medical records. Practo raised over $55 million from Tencent.
Swiggy
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Swiggy – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Swiggy is one of the most popular a food delivery company in India. Swiggy is one of the unicorn in India and in fact, it is also India’s fastest unicorn. In 2018, Tencent invested on Swiggy again in 2020, Swiggy got a good amount funding from Tenvcent. Both the times, the amount is not diclosed.
Udaan
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Udaan – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Udaan is a network-centric B2B trade platform designed specifically for small and medium-scale businesses in India. Udaan brings traders, wholesalers, and retailers into one place. Udaan raised funds from Tencent,the amount invested was not diclosed.
Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi
Hungama Digital Media – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Hungama Digital Media Entertainment serves as an aggregator, developer, publisher, and distributor of Bollywood and Asian entertainment. Xiaomi made its first investment in an Indian company by pouring $25-million in Hungama Digital Media Entertainment.
Marsplay
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi
Marsplay – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Marsplay is an online platform that allows users to discover and share fashion and beauty tips. Marsplay Internet Private Limited, the parent company of Marsplay, raised funding from Xiaomi in 2018, although the exact amount was not disclosed.
Oye! Rickshaw
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi
Oye! Rickshaw – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Oye! Rickshaw is an electric rickshaw mobility platform that connects driver-partners and users. The best part is it is environment-friendly and is on a mission to make people commute without any problem. Oye Rickshaw raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Xiami in 2020.
ShareChat
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi and ShunWei Capital
ShareChat – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
ShareChat is an Indian Social networking service, and it was incorporated on January 8, 2015. The main attraction of this app is that it support over 15 languages. ShareChat raised funds from Xiaomi and ShunWei Capital, a Chinese venture capital firm. Both the investment amount was not disclosed
ZestMoney
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi
ZestMoney – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
ZestMoney is the largest and fastest-growing consumer lending fintech company in India. ZestMoney’s platform enables instant approval and disbursal of small-ticket loans. Xiaomi invested an undisclosed amount in ZestMoney in 2018.
OYO
Chinese Investor: Didi Chuxing
OYO – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
OYO, the multinational hospitality chain is famous for its budget rooms and it is considered the biggest network of hotels in India. It is also spread in more than 199 cities and serves its people. In the year 2019. Didi Chuxing a transport company invested $100 million in OYO.
PolicyBazaar
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Policy Bazaar – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Policy Bazaar is a company that provides online life insurance and general insurance. The Indian multinational fintech company has been here for 14 years and has been serving people. Tencent invested $150 million in PolicyBazaar in the year 2019.
Delhivery
Chinese Investor: Fosun
Delhivery – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
This Indian logistics and supply chain company’s main service is to transport parcels and provide third-party logistics for e-commerce companies. In the year, 2017 Fosun, a Cho9nese conglomerate company invested $3o million in Delhivery.
FAQs
How many Chinese companies are there in India?
There are 105 Chinese companies in India.
Is BigBasket funded by China?
BigBasket is an Indian online grocery delivery service. Alibaba invested in BigBasket in 2018. The investment assists BigBasket in competing with the US-based Amazon and India’s Flipkart. The company’s valuation exceeded $1 billion with the help of Chinese investment.
Is flipkart funded by China?
Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company based out Bangalore, India. Chinese investors like Tencent Holdings and Steadview Capital have invested more than $300 million in Flipkart.
Is Paytm owned by China?
Paytm launched the Paytm Mall app in Feb 2017; Paytm Mall follows a business to consumer model. It is an e-commerce platform that allows consumers to shop from 1.4 lakh registered sellers. Alibaba invested in Paytm Mall for a 40% stake but refused to fund Paytm Mall further.
What are the Chinese Investment Companies in India?
Top Chinese Investment Companies in India are:
Tencent
Alibaba
Xiaomi
How many Chinese companies are listed in Indian stock market?
There are a total of 16 Chinese FPIs registered in India.
What are the top companies that received funding from Chinese company in India?
Top companies that received funding from Chinese company in India are:
Swiggy was founded in the year 2014. It is currently India’s largest delivery and online food ordering platform. It is operating in 100 different cities in the country. Swiggy has been using AI to improve its orders and delivery. Let’s look at the steps taken by the company to use AI for the smooth delivery of its products.
Swiggy has used AI to grow its order value by over 200%. The company said that the real challenge they faced was real-time decisions or optimizing their products. They said that, when the customers are deciding what to order, the delivery executives keep moving around and restaurants get busy with their customers and orders. Finding a balance between these three was the real challenge faced by them.
Customer Sattisfaction
The company stated that first promise they would maintain is that they will deliver the products within the given time period. They have built an AI system, where the customers will be able to see what they would prefer, at what time, etc. in the company’s platform. It is designed using AI which makes it easier for the customers to choose their order.
The platform is built in a way where it would understand the language used to refer to the same item in different names. For example- In India chicken is addressed using different names in different languages and AI helps in making the platform understand that all these different names means the same dish.
Swiggy’s Delivery Executives
The location of the delivery executives is tracked by the company on a real-time basis. They get to know whether the delivery executive is available to fulfill the order or not using the AI system. This will help the company in confirming the order given by the customers.
The company also needs to understand, whether the executive is a new person or an experienced person which is done through an automation Process.
The delivery executives will have to mark arrived, when they reach a restaurant for picking up the order. The company uses live GPS tracking so that they don’t click arrived even before reaching the restaurant. This helps the company to know that they are physically present in the restaurant.
Valuation of Swiggy ($m)
Swiggy’s AI Solution for Restaurants
In the same way, restaurants will also face similar challenges. It would take different time periods to prepare different dishes. Some may take 20 minutes while others may take up to 30 minutes to prepare. The company has built systems to take into account how much time would it require to prepare the dishes ordered by the customers.
Another area where the company concentrates is on food quality. Sometimes the customer would receive a different dish from the one they would have ordered. The company has built a box that has a camera in it, which will take pictures of the food to ensure that it is the right food. The company informed that it is a computer vision model based on deep learning.
Time and Space
The other prime factor the company takes into consideration is the time and space input. The uniqueness of on-demand services is that the customers need would change according to the time and location. The platform understands, whether it’s morning or afternoon and shows the restaurants and dishes accordingly.
AI Strategy
Swiggy has hired an AI team from across the globe. They have hired individuals who hold multiple PHDs from international universities, and people who work as senior scientists in places like GE research and IBM.
They have built a separate team dedicated only to applied research. This team is different from the data science team. This team will concentrate on solving the problems of the next 100 customers, while there is a team that looks at immediate problems.
The company receives terabytes of data weekly and around 40 billion messages per day. Swiggy has worked on putting this data to develop and build Machine Learning models. The company has said that they have also partnered to get third-party data.
Swiggy is also working on Artificial Intelligence on computer vision where for example a picture of a menu is automatically taken and converted into a file.
They are looking forward to building long-term capability by partnering with other research institutions and industries which are external. Swiggy has also partnered with various universities and institutions where they would fund the research programme and innovative ideas.
This is a step where the university students and Swiggy scientists would be able to work together in developing innovative models. They have also partnered with Amazon Web Services and a lot of startups.
FAQ
Who is the Founder of Swiggy?
Swiggy was founded by Nandan Reddy, Sriharsha Majety, and Rahul Jaimini.
What is the valuation of Swiggy?
Swiggy has a total valuation of $1 billion.
How many orders a day does Swiggy have?
Swiggy has a high number of orders with 1.4 million orders a day.
Conclusion
Swiggy has also made efforts to introduce Artificial Intelligence across the organization. This would help everyone build models around it. They have launched a training programme for their teams, analysts and even business leaders which is “AI for All”.
The vision of the company is to make AI part of their culture which has led them to build the capability and knowledge in the organization said Swiggy’s technological head.
Indian startups may become the new eye candy for foreign investors as RBI and SEBI come together allowing them to enlist themselves in foreign jurisdiction. The tech ecosystem is flourishing at a steady pace in India. This pace might get some acceleration if Indian startups decide to approach funding by enlisting themselves outside India.
However, until recently, SEBI, the stock market watchdog, had certain compliances which made listing on foreign exchanges a troublesome task.
Under the current rules, Indian companies are allowed to issue only specific currencies such as depository receipts on foreign stock exchanges- that too only if you are a company enlisted in India. This is about to change as the government along with SEBI and RBI has now allowed Indian conglomerates to enlist themselves abroad.
In the Companies (Amendment) bill 2020 passed by Rajya Sabha in September last year, it seeks to amend Sec 23 of Companies Act 2013, which prescribes the manner in which private and public companies may issue securities.
Earlier, the companies who preferred enlisting themselves on foreign stock exchanges were compelled to do so with several restrictions laid out by SEBI. With the amendment coming into force, not only existing Indian companies but newbies too can enlist themselves under foreign stock exchanges. The center along with SEBI and RBI are working on a framework to bring this into practice.
Companies that are Seeking Foreign Stock Exchanges
Infosys, the Indian tech giant became the first company to get listed on a foreign stock exchange when it enlisted itself on NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) on March 11, 1999. Post Infosys, a number of Indian companies decided to join the league including ICICI, HDFC Bank, Wipro and travel tech company MakeMyTrip.com.
Along with NASDAQ, there are other exchanges overseas that are trying to grab the attention of Indian companies. Amongst the top ones are NYSE, Tokyo Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange who are trying to meet Indian firms and lure them into enlisting themselves on these platforms.
India has more than 30 unicorns such as OLA, Byju’s, Swiggy and Paytm who could be beneficiaries of this government initiative. While this is being applauded and celebrated, UK based Bay Capital announces Pre IPO investment in India’s largest insurance aggregator, PolicyBazar.com.
Siddharth Mehta, founder and chief information officer of Bay Capital, said, “We are excited to partner with the excellent management team of PB Fintech, which is transforming the way insurance is bought in India. Customer centricity has been the heart of their proposition and has helped them become the platform of choice for customers.”
Indian startup ecosystem has now been exposed to a vast capital market which was in oblivion before the announcement. Of course, there are companies who have taken the road to foreign stock exchanges but notably it took Indian companies 30 long years to finally go abroad.
SEBI has been a tenacious watchdog and companies have struggled to move out of their regional boundaries. With the changes prompted by the center, Indian companies, especially startups are doing the happy dance since a vast capital market has been exposed to them.
Key benefits of listing Overseas
Wider Investor base
Listing overseas will expose Indian companies to a larger pool of investors broadening their investor base.
Soared Valuations
More investors along with an understanding of global influence, raised cap for funding.
Overseas listing has put companies like Wipro, HDFC Bank, ICICI on the global map and will do the same for companies that are considering this move. No pros for any decision exist without their cons. Economic experts fear that Indian companies may face tax complications in a market regulated by foreign law makers. Dual listing may bring concerns over co-existing in foreign waters and on the home ground.
Native Concerns
Internet entrepreneur Sanjeev Bikhchandani says an estimated Rs 17 trillion of market cap has been transferred abroad after young Indian Startups were forced to shift their company domicile overseas by foreign investors promising the funds they need for growth.
Shades of the East India Company type of situation here – Indian market, Indian customers, Indian developers, Indian workforce. However 100% foreign ownership, foreign investors. IP and data transferred overseas. Transfer pricing issues foggy. https://t.co/gANDVZOceS
There is a fear shared by many economic well wishers that listing overseas would be giving up a part of the ecosystem which is full of potential and may drive the aspiring Indian entrepreneur away from his/her roots.
FAQ
Which country has the most number of Startups?
United states is the country which has the most number of Startups.
Can Indian companies list overseas?
Ministry of Finance, Government of India announced that Indian companies would now be allowed to list their shares directly in foreign stock exchanges.
Is dual listing allowed in India?
The Indian government has decided not to mandate secondary listing for domestic firms which choose to list on overseas stock exchanges.
Conclusion
Indian ecosystem is a hidden treasure which is about to get explored by the global market. Several startups have been meaning to raise funds through ICOs (Initial Coin Offering) which is through crypto funding.
Apparently, we are running out of investors in India and foreign involvement is seeking an approval at large. While this may be a great opportunity for upcoming companies, there will always be dismay of profits flowing out of the country.
Listing overseas calls upon a bundle of opportunities for Indian companies to have a global footprint. It not only will enable India to aspire for a spot in the global marketplace but also will take Indian ecosystem towards becoming a global superpower.
The investment landscape in India is fragmented and spilt between the haves and the have not. Over the last decade, India has seen an increase in the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI). More MNCs have been opening their offices and expanding their businesses here, resulting in a wealth of job opportunities. The Bangalore based Minance has stepped forward to solve the chaotic investment landscape of the country by making three fundamental changes.
The company is vesting its focus on making investing more accessible, making the process more transparent and finally working towards centralization. Investing for higher returns has become an important factor in the average Indian’s financial planning. While there are many wealth management firms targeting high net worth individuals (HNIs) and their impressive portfolios, there aren’t many players in the market helping the average Indian invest his/her hard-earned savings and realize profits from otherwise idle assets.
This is where Minance steps in to make a difference. The company aims to change that by helping investors from all walks of life invest in products that were earlier available only to the ultra-rich. Right from financial handholding, transparent dealing of investments through a customer friendly dashboard, to centralization of investments and taxation, Minance is giving the Indian consumer financial independence in the true sense of the term.
Minance is a private wealth management firm focused on providing a comprehensive range of investment product for its partners. Minance uses a combination of complex algorithms and fundamental research to guide our investment across derivatives, equity, mutual funds and private equities. Minance was founded in the year November 19th, 2014 by Anurag Bhatia. The vision is to be a one stop solution for investor’s financial needs. The company also provides taxation services and is expanding to insurance, credit, and international equities.
Minance manages the investments of its partners across a range of asset classes from equities and derivatives to mutual funds and stocks of fast-growing private companies and startups. In just four-and-a-half years, Minance has 3,000 partners and an Asset under Management (AUM) of over $41 Million (Rs. 300 Crore). Bhatia the founder of Minance says that, “Our internal tagline is the money company and we want that to be a reality. To that end, we will soon be expanding into insurance and credit”.
Anurag Bhatia, the founder and CEO of Minance
When it comes to the history of minance, the company was started when Bhatia was still employed under Amazon. He noticed how a lot of employees who had vested their Amazon stocks but didn’t know what to do with the money. Bhatia who then was known to be the ‘stock market guy’, would help them make a deal in which he would manage his colleague’s investments in return for 1/5 of the profits. This led to Bhatia making a company known as Minance. The company, which initially offered just derivatives, soon gained traction among investors because of its low investment ceiling of Rs 25,000.
Bhatia became well known after becoming a top writer on Quora. Impressed with his knowledge of the markets, people started pouring in to invest through Minance. The young founder says that he’s been humbled by the overwhelming response to his company. “The journey has been challenging at times. What we set out to do hadn’t been done this way before and we had to build a lot of things from scratch, especially the technology,” he says. Now the investment management firm has around 3,000 partners and has an Asset Under Management (AUM) of over Rs. 300 Crore
What makes Minance stay ahead is their belief of simply establishing a personal relationship with the people who invest with them. Over the years, the company has managed to build a family of clients who have restored their faith in Minance. Minance has been able to carve out a niche for itself in the competitive market with established players like Tata, HDFC, Future Capital, Kotak Mahindra Capital, Edelweiss stock broking and many more.
The founder of Minance, Anurag Bhatia says that, “Small retail investors were catered to by mutual funds and the ultra-rich (investments of Rs. 30 Crore and more) went with players like ASK, HDFC, Kotak, etc. We take care of the needs of those in the middle, people who can invest anywhere between Rs. 5-10 Lakh to a few crore”. Minance products are designed in way that they cater to a wide range of risky profile needs. Minance has a product for everyone whether they are a heavy risk taker hungry for return or conservative investor looking for a stable and consistent gain.
The logo of Minance
Systematic investments plans (SIPs) are the most popular type of mutual fund as it is easy and convenient, but it comes with a problem as people forget to monitor people forget to monitor them and when market conditions change. Regular monitoring and rebalancing are needed, for which Minance offers managed mutual funds. Bhatia points out that one of the most sought-after products Minance offers is a mutual fund enabled product called Assets Pay Cash, which is designed to generate around 12% additional returns per annum over and above what the mutual fund makes.
Investing through SIPs in stock are harder since you need to gauge the market and track multiple stocks, which is time consuming. “We are making this easier with our equity product (Bloom). Investors can set up a SIP with us, the money is parked into liquid debt funds while we wait for the right time to deploy. This way your money is still invested and we get to pick the right time to enter the market,” explains Bhatia.
The products offered by Minance are varied in nature. The company taps into the unlisted/private equity market and carries out quality research on companies that are revolutionaries in their fields. The team at minance is focused on research and they make a point to delve into specifics before pitching an investments to their clients. Assets Pay cash (APC) is another investment strategy risk averse in nature with an aim to have you generate significant alpha above your mutual funds.
The idea is to collateralize your mutual funds, gain margin and then trade in conservative option positions. With all this, our team of Investment managers and Traders work towards being up to date with the market nuances to make informed decisions for our clients,” he informs. Some of the known products offered by the company are:
Bloom – Minance long tern equity product is designed to grow your wealth over a 3 to 5 year period. Both Arbor and bloom feature five risk profiles to balance risk appetite with returns.
Arbor – Minance core derivatives product catering to aggressive investors, Arbor is designed to generate returns of up to 35%. The product is market neutral, meaning it will generate returns regardless of the market direction.
Private equities – The Company offers shares of promising private companies such as PayTm, Ola Kurlon Mattresses, Nazara, etc.
Mutual Funds – The company helps its partners identify and manage the most lucrative funds for a given risk level, based on the efficient frontier theory.
Assets pay cash – This lets the partner make 12% more returns on top of their mutual funds with no additional investments.
Tax safe – Tax safe is minance online vault which stores user’s tax documents and enables them to file taxes in a fast and hassle freeway.
Global Equities – Minance latest product enables its partners to invest in a diverse global portfolio comprising of US tech companies, European manufactures, Asian infrastructure firms and many more.
A hardworking team
Minance is backed by a young and self-reliant team that is open to opportunities and willing to learn. Bhatia say that, “Finance at the end of the day is also an empathetic business and if you do not speak to your clients the way you would like to be spoken to, the concept of client service is lost. Our team believes in being honest with our clients.” The aim of the company is to level where it serves the elite Indian crowd.
The idea is to target the rich customers and help them manage their wealth. Traditional methods of investing have existed for centuries and the team is looking for avenues that could help them bounce from these methods to a more advanced ones. “It’s common to worry when it comes to Futures or Options as products because they are quite complex in nature. But that’s where the trick is the want to figure that out. That defines us,” he concludes.
Minance partners have access to all these advantages while being able to maintain complete ownership and control of their money. One of the most popular features is a sure shot investor pleaser and the ability to redeem funds anytime. By allowing complete liquidity, Minance takes away whatever apprehensions investors generally have, which make them wary of investing. Minance also enables its partners to access their accounts anytime they wish to see how their funds are doing.
It offers a web dashboard through which partners receive updates and insights about the companies they have invested their funds in. This helps them stay in loop without having to set up additional tickets on their desktop. Wealth management is an important concern for people living in a country burgeoning economically, technologically, and in many other aspects. Minance helps investors as well as novices strike this balance and provides them the perfect platform to spread their wings and experience ultimate financial freedom.
The application of technology to food innovation forms the core of the foodtech vertical. Nicolas Appert’s improvement in 1810 of the canning procedure is an early example of foodtech innovation. The emphasis was on safeguarding sustenance. The procedure wasn’t called canning at that point, and Appert didn’t know the rule on which his procedure worked. Canning has majorly affected foodtech conservation strategies.
Louis Pasteur’s exploration of the deterioration of wine and his portrayal of how to keep away from decay in 1864 was another example of foodtech development or food based startups. Other than examining wine deterioration, Pasteur explored the creation of liquor, vinegar, wines and brew, and the souring of milk. He focused on warming milk and milk items to pulverize food deterioration. In his investigation into sustenance innovation, Pasteur turned into a pioneer of bacteriology and paved way for preventive measures.
Food sustenance using tech was dull before 2018; however, it has rebounded from the stagnation. From a daily request volume of 3.7 lakh in 2017, as mentioned by RedSeer Consulting, the number expanded to 15 lakh as of September 2018. Unmistakably, the hunger for Foodtech is developing among buyers and speculators. After a phase where footech ventures like Tiny Owl, Yumist, and Dazo shut operations, things are now looking positive.
“In the last six to eight months, numerous littler players have come in, while taxi aggregators have stretched out their administrations to the Foodtech accumulation space. With Ola gaining Foodpanda and Uber propelling Uber Eats, the challenge has increased in the market,” says Rohan Agarwal, a commitment administrator at RedSeer Consulting.
Swiggy is the market chief in the sustenance accumulation space, timing around six lakh everyday orders, while Zomato is at a close second with near 5.2 lakh orders daily. Uber Eats, given its extension binge, has figured out how to topple Ola’s Foodpanda with around three lakh orders, while the latter serves nearly 2.5 lakh orders every day through its mobile app and website.
In October, Foodpanda propelled its conveyance administration in 30 new urban areas, taking its aggregate to 50 urban areas crosswise over India. The target is to convey foodtech services in 100 urban areas. Foodpanda was acquired by SoftBank-supported Ola in December 2017. At the time, the taxi-hailing stage declared it would put $200 million in Foodpanda’s sustenance conglomeration business. Be that as it may, Ola’s rival has ended up being a considerable opponent in this space. Propelled in May 2017, Uber Eats put its focus on clients and baited them with heavy limits and first-request offers.
Food Tech Industry in India
At present, Uber Eats is accessible in 37 urban areas in India and Southeast Asia and plans to multiply rapidly. “At some random topography, buyers can browse more than 30 foods on a normal,” says a Uber Eats representative. The more settled players, Zomato and Swiggy, have been growing their impressions. Zomato is looking at the level II-III urban areas for development. “We have our services in 59 urban cities in India. Our transient objective is to twofold down on our development by growing to more level of II-III urban areas in India and building profundity in level I advertises,” says a Zomato representative. “We have extended to 37 such urban cities in the past four months, and the reaction has just surpassed our desires.”
Then, Swiggy conveys sustenance in 45 urban areas across India through its conveyance armada of more than one lakh riders. The aggregator claims to have a relationship with more than 45,000 cafés. Regardless of how reassuring the pattern, the reality remains that dedication sidesteps the Foodtech tech space. Purchasers rush to those offering the best arrangements or limits.
Foodtech aggregators get a lot of their income through the commission charged on requests. Contingent upon the request size and the city, aggregators charge 15-30% commission to the eatery setting up the foodtech. Recuperating the expense of activity stays a test. Aside from commissions, in-application publicizing and reliability projects are different wellsprings of income for the aggregators.
Some of them have begun facilitating cloud kitchen systems to get an advantage. Consider the Swiggy Access program, which permits its café accomplices to set up kitchen spaces in territories where they don’t have a nearness. Propelled in 2019, it appears to have worked for the organization. “We have Swiggy Access kitchens in different cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. Around 70% of our accomplice cafés are hoping to work with us in more than one Access,” says Vishal Bhatia, CEO of new supply, Swiggy. Over the long haul, Swiggy plans to convey as much as 20-25% of its requests from these conveyances from Access kitchens.
India is a leading opportunity for foodtech companies. That is why many foodtech companies In India have already started their journey. So, the list of food tech companies in India are:
Food Panda
Foodpanda | Foodtech Companies In India
The Big Daddy of em’ all! Foodpanda is India’s most popular foodtech startup. It has a solid national nearness by tying up with more than 2000 sustenance sellers, for example, Wendy’s, Burger King, Subway, Biryani Blues, and Southy. They have a broad scope of worldwide and national cooking styles in their menu. Foodpanda has an effective operational procedure and uses exclusive innovation to follow sustenance request conveyances until the client’s entryway.
Zomato
Zomato | Food Tech Industry in India
Zomato is one of the successfulfood startups in India which is driving sustenance tech organizations alongside Foodpanda and Swiggy. It has more than 42,000 cafés recorded several urban areas in India, and it additionally works in more than 23 nations. On the off chance that it lives up to its guarantee, Zomato will become the principal Indian food startups or organisation. Its technique is substance-driven with low client obtaining costs, and a greater part of its income originates from promotion and publicity.
Swiggy
Swiggy | Food Startups
Bangalore-based Swiggy was established by Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy, and Rahul Jaimini in 2014. Swiggy has more than 9000 eateries under its umbrella. It is one of the biggest food tech startups in India. The client gets convenient conveyances and constant following of their requests using Swiggy’s application at no additional conveyance charge. Swiggy doesn’t have a base request approach for each eatery it is tied up with over its application.
Faasos
Established by INSEAD graduates Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee in 2011, Faasos food tech startup has its presence in more than 15 noteworthy urban communities over India. An ideal case of a disconnected chain that went on the web, Faasos has a kitchen with master culinary experts.
Established in 2014 by Rashmi Daga, who by chance happens to be a veggie-lover, FreshMenu works in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, and Gurgaon. FreshMenu began with a modest one kitchen and has nearly 30 kitchens today serving universal food. It plans to expand to 80 kitchens in the coming years. It has a proficient group of 500 representatives in their kitchens who cook in-house, and have their very own conveyance group.
Box8
Established by two IIT graduates Amit Raj and Anshul Gupta, Box8 the Indian food startup serves credible Indian food much like how pizzas and burgers are conveyed to clients, for example, quick, simple and in a box Box8 has structured the ‘Across the board’ dinner box, a cutting edge, satisfying Indian feast which can be eaten anywhere at any time. Box8 has given an Indian curve to everything, from wraps and sandwiches to curries. The USP lies in item improvement.
Box8’s paranthas are produced using whole wheat and cooked in a negligible measure of oil. None of its dishes is broiled. It has a collection of frozen yoghurts, feast boxes, wraps, sandwiches, plates of mixed greens, and treats. 85% of the exchanges are from rehash clients, making Box8 a commendable contextual investigation for a long-haul supportable model.
HolaChef
HolaChef is the food startup in India which wasEstablished by IIT-Bombay graduates Saxena, Anil Gelra, and Ritu Rana, Mumbai based Hola Chef is sponsored by Mr Ratan Tata who has been placing his cash in a few advanced organisations recently. HolaChef conveys home-prepared food to its buyers while dealing with the total coordination of the sustenance, for example, bundling, stockpiling, and conveyance. It has developed from a humble 200 requests for every month in 2014 to more than 1 lakh orders each month in 2016. Almost 66% of its all-out requests are through the application available for Android and Apple phones.
Gurgaon-based Yumist was established by ex-Zomato CMO Alok Jain and Abhimanyu Maheshwari, a prepared F&B business person in 2014. At present, Yumist caters to the locales of Delhi, Noida, and Gurgaon. With an intense blend of foodtech, coordination, and innovation, Yumist possesses and controls the whole sustenance conveyance store network. Yumist considers the “dabbawala” and “corporate bottles” as its essential rivals and intends to reconsider the cost of its suppers to draw more clients and beat challenges. Yumist has shut down operations in Bangalore and plans to grow in Mumbai and Pune. It was in the news recently for raising Rs. 12 crores.
Cook Gourmet
This novel Gurgaon-based startup was launched by Sanny Chaudhary and Daman Singh Kohli. Cook Gourmet offers expert-curated plans comprising of different delicacies. These hand-picked plans are conveyed in an ice-pressed box, the cut vegetables and meat vacuum-fixed with the goal that they stay crisp until you cook them in the solaces of your home. They stay fresh up to 3 days when refrigerated. Indeed, even an amateur in cooking can expertly cook with the instructional exercises given in Cook Gourmet’s offerings.
At present, the Indian food services is a $50 billion industry when contrasted with the US Food Services Industry, which is worth almost around $600 billion. Large scale patterns like family units, more ladies joining the workforce, and higher expendable livelihoods are going to make the food tech industry in India develop at a high rate.
With Zomato and Swiggy getting to be unicorn triumphs and online Foodtech conveyance requests crossing 1 million in daily conveyances, it is unquestionable that the Indian sustenance tech and administrations industry is a hot topic currently.
Skip The Queue – Foodtech Industry
Moderateness And Openness
The normal individual expends three dinners every day and roughly 90 suppers per month. Out of this, in India, individuals eat out or get sustenance conveyance possibly 3-4 times each month. In nations like China or Singapore, this can be as high as 50 dinners a month ate out or conveyed, as there are more decisions, quick conveyance, and reasonableness from sustenance organizations.
A normal individual in India might want to spend between Rs 50-200 for their normal supper, and Foodtech conveyance organizations are attempting to hit the sweet spot of this range. Foodtech conveyance coordinations are showing signs of improvement and less expensive, with the growing number of orders and higher thickness of the populace in urban areas.
Expanding Number Of Homegrown Eat-in Chains
Dominos India with over 1,000 outlets, is doing Rs 3,000 crores yearly. Eatery networks like Barbeque Nation are accomplishing more than Rs 500 crores in business every year. There will be a lot more eat-in chains, with more than $1 billion yearly incomes, from India soon. Bunches of these eat-in chains like Farzi Cafe, Mamagato, Saravana Bhawan, and Yellow Chili have started extending outside India to scale quickly.
There are heaps of conveyance kitchens like Faasos, Box8, FreshMenu, and Biryani By Kilo which have more than 10-20 outlets each and is extending quickly. Given the high rental and CapEx required to eat in eateries, no one but kitchens can give better quality dinners at progressively moderate costs to clients, all in the comfort of clients’ homes and workplaces.
Biryani Is The Newest Pizza
Biryani is a conveyance class, specifically in India, will outperform pizza soon because of its taste, flavorful fragrances, and better life span.
Enormous Retailers And Taxi Companies Are Gathering
Premium friendliness brands around the world like Zuma Dine-in/Lounge and Nobu, with a couple of outlets each, do around $200 million in yearly deals or more. Huge organizations like McDonald’s and Starbucks accomplish more than $20 billion in deals. Overall foodtech conveyance organizations like Deliveroo, Delivery Hero, GrubHub, and Just Eat are huge unicorns today. Enormous retailers like Amazon and on-request taxi organizations like Uber and Ola need a bit of the sustenance conveyance for advertisements. Recurrence in foodtech utilization is a lot higher than most other web-based business classes, including taxi administrations.
According to RedSeer Consulting, the foodtech industry grew 150% from $120 million in 2015 to $300 million in gross product esteem in 2016. The business remained at a similar level in 2017 even as the foodtech vertical slithered again into a period of recovery from the unpleasant days. As per RedSeer,, the industry is on course to touch $2.5-3.5 billion by 2021.
The sustenance conveyance space saw 63 arrangements worth $274 million in 2015. The number of arrangements tumbled to 43 in 2016, adding up to $78 million. Although 2017 saw 20 subsidizing bargains, the combined estimation of those speculations was $124 million.
Fund Raised By Foodtech Companies in India
A commercial center totals and publicizes cafés other than maintaining a tech-driven coordinations foundation to convey sustenance. Then again, a cloud kitchen is a fairly intricate instrument where administrators endeavour to fabricate various parts of the foodtech business such as brand, tech foundation, etc.
Zomato, Swiggy, and Foodpanda are the prevailing commercial centres in India, while FreshMenu, Box8, Faasos, and HolaChef are unadulterated play cloud kitchens.
While Zomato and Swiggy keep on commanding the business, Ola’s pledge to infuse $200 million into Foodpanda India to grow its business is probably going to make it the third solid player in the game.
While Ola has the imperative capacities regarding coordinations, organize, and on-ground foundation, it is to be seen whether it can transform sustenance conveyance into a beneficial business. Ola had propelled two sustenance related activities in 2015 (Ola Cafe and Ola Store) and the shut the same in 2016 to concentrate on its central business.
Sustenance conveyance and other foodtech organizations in India commonly work on razor-slight edges. Foodpanda just as its fundamental adversaries, Zomato and Swiggy, are making misfortunes. Foodpanda, in any case, has lost less on each rupee in income than Zomato and Swiggy in 2017.
Bundl Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs Swiggy, timed income of Rs 133 crore in 2016-17, a six-crease increment from Rs 20 crore in the earlier year. Its misfortunes extended to Rs 205 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 137 crore the earlier year as costs increased dramatically. The three-year-old startup is one of the most encouraging sustenance conveyance players in the market right now.
As indicated by a few media reports in November, Japanese telecom and Internet aggregate SoftBank was in discourses to contribute around $200-250 million (Rs 1,288-1,610 crore) in the homegrown foodtech conveyance stage. Reports additionally demonstrated that Chinese e-rear Alibaba likewise was investigating a conceivable interest through Ant Financial, its money related administrations member.
Another media report in November recommended that Flipkart and Tencent were investigating alternatives to co-put $100 million into Swiggy. There were additional reports of a potential Swiggy-Zomato merger.
Swiggy has raised more than $155.5 million until this point. It raised $80 million in a Series E round driven by South African innovation aggregate Naspers. Swiggy is additionally supported by Accel India, SAIF Partners India, Bessemer Venture Partners, Harmony Partners, and Norwest Venture Partners.
Zomato posted an income of Rs 332.3 crore in 2016-17, up 81% from Rs 183.9 crore in 2015-16. It limited its misfortunes to Rs 389 crore from Rs 590.1 crore. Zomato, in any case, isn’t only a Foodtech conveyance organization yet additionally offers café postings, table reservations, and different administrations.
The year likewise observed cloud kitchen administrator FreshMenu break into the best-five club of online foodtech organizations, on account of a noteworthy increment in income for 2015-16. It got a fix on the cloud kitchen model much before other foodtech businesses and has adhered to it.
Future Of Foodtech Services In India
Development in the market is foreseen by expanding discretionary cashflow, developing normal family unit pay, and rising pattern of twofold salary no-kids idea. Supported by developing web entrance from 10% in 2011 to 27% by 2015, expanding cell phone clients from 123 million in 2014 to 167 million by 2015, combined with maturing internet business market and rising youthful working populace, the food tech advertise in India is foreseen to develop at a vigorous pace.
Journey And Future Of Foodtech Industry
Another point of interest for foodtech organizations in India is the developing youth populace, fundamentally in urban districts of the nation. The nation has a huge base of youthful buyers who work in offices and don’t have the time to cook.
In India, the idea of requesting foodtech online is gaining pace due to benefits like conveyance of sustenance at the doorstep of the client, choice of interchange instalment techniques, and consistent declaration of alluring cashback/limits offers.
Growth Of Foodtech Industry in India
Based on activity type, the India foodtech market has been sectioned into two classes: café-based and sustenance aggregators. In 2015, eatery-based (i.e., café-based) ruled the general market and is foreseen to keep up its strength throughout the following five years.
The foodtech aggregator section is relied upon to outpace café-based fragments sometime soon. Foodtech aggregators go about as a middle person between clients and eateries and give the alternative of browsing various cooking styles from different café and sustenance outlets enlisted with them.
“Yum Foods, Jubilant Foodworks, Zoamto, and McDonald’s are the main players in India food tech showcase. These players are foreseen to keep up their strength in the market through 2021, transcendently because of their future extension plans. With expanding private value and investment subsidizing, the food tech organizations are centring towards growing their business in Tier II and III urban communities crosswise over India.
With developing challenge, online sustenance requesting organizations are concentrating on giving quicker conveyance in significant metro urban communities to expand their client base.”, said Mr Karan Chechi, Research Director at TechSci Research, an examination-based worldwide administration counselling firm.
Food technology is a branch of food science that deals with the production, preservation, quality control and research and development of the food products.
What is the food tech business model?
the Indian food-tech industry has evolved immensely and engineered new ways to make profits. Prominent companies viz. Swiggy, Zomato, and Uber Eats have built up new business models, which enable them to serve better, besides merely focusing on the food delivery business.
How technology has affected the food industry?
By using tech to improve processing and packaging, it can improve the shelf life and safety of food. The use of machines in the food industry also ensures quality and affordability. By using machines, it drives down the costs of keeping the food fresh and increases productivity.
What are the food tech startup ideas or What are the tips to build food based startups in India?
Tips to build your food based startups in India or food tech startup ideas:
Focus on the product and keep it simple. Get busy in your kitchen to make small batches and go out to make people trying your product.
Start selling from day one & ask for feedback.
Be obsessed with gathering data.
Review feedback and be ready to go back to the drawing board.
The world is suffering from a pandemic caused by an extremely contagious virus- COVID-19. Its been almost six months, and yet things do not look to go back to “normal”. But the lives keep moving. The fast-growing changes in lifestyles have brought a drastic change in the marketing scenario and the FMCG sector has been affected the most.
Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), are basically packaged goods that we buy at retail shops at a very low cost. These are also called as consumer packaged goods. They get sold out easily and are not durable.
Some Thriving Brands of FMCG Across the World
Categories of FMCG
Processed food
Beverage
Dry foods like tea,sugar,coffee
Prepared meals
Cosmetics
Toiletries
Over the counter medicines
Candy
Fresh foods like veggies
Frozen foods
Baked foods
Consumer electronics
Office supplies like pen,papers
Cleaning products
Clothes like socks,under garments.
These are also called as consumer packaged goods. Some of the goods are highly perishable like processed meat, dairy products, etc. FMCG goods are the largest sector of consumer goods. Although half of the consumer’s spending accounts for these “fast-selling packaged goods, they tend to be low investment purchases.
Future of FMCG from a Global Point of View
E-commerce has come across a latest trend of piling of FMCGs. Following reasons can be attribute to the sudden change in the behavior of consumers all over the world.
Lack of fresh products have compelled the users to depend on packaging items.
More over package foods are easier to stock.
Development of panic buying attitude as regards to essential commodities including common medicines.
Avoiding/closer of restaurants have driven consumers to their own kitchens.
Sanitary, hygienic and over the counter medicines have been added to the buying list.
Global projections that the share of online FMCG sales would comprise 10% of the total market by 2025. It is likely to be vastly understated given the pandemic’s role as a catalyst for e-commerce growth in the FMCG and grocery space. Most FMCG companies have fogged a tie-up with delivering companies such as Zomato, Swiggy, Dominos, Big Basket and Dunzo to ensure that their products reach their customer amidst this pandemic.
But companies are claiming that even after this pandemic, this could stay as the normal trend. As people are being acquainted to online ordering. Not to mention the convenience of home delivery. It is expected the sales through e-commerce to increase from 2-3% to 4-5% post pandemic.
The FMCG sector is expected to grow since people have shifted to e-commerce post this virus outbreak. Due to WHO guidelines regarding social distancing, unnecessary bars, shopping malls, retail shops, and markets are closed. People maintaining distance socially in order to stay safe are choosing to buy their necessities online, instead of going to their near Kirana store.
People in India would normally do their grocery shopping from the retail shop near, where they would buy goods sold on loose, but now due to pandemic people are forced to shift to e-commerce. Now instead of buying wheat flour from the nearest cottage mill, one has to buy the packaged product.
In India, there has been seen a significant purchase of these packaged products in rural and semi-urban areas. Whereas the urban cities have shown a decline in the purchase of these goods. Because of severe lock-downs and restrictions on manufacturing and maintaining social distancing and store closures among others have had a severe impact on the FMCG industry.
India saw a heavy decline (about 6%) in the month of January 2020. Even with a steady increase in the consumption of dairy products and other essentials, this sector is still facing a crisis due to this pandemic.
The FMCG sector is the 4th largest sector in the Indian economy. It has basically 3 main segments under it with a consumption patter under:
Food and beverages (19%)
Healthcare (31%)
Household and personal care (50%)
chart showing consumption of different FMCG products
In India however, slashing the optimistic 5-6% FMCG growth estimate made around April of this year, it is now said to remain the same. In the worst-case scenario, to shrink 1 percent.
Of late, the FMCG sector in rural India has grown at a faster pace than its urban counterpart with FMCG products accounting for about half of total rural spending. Semi-urban and rural segments contribute over 40% of the overall revenues of the FMCG sector in India and with about 12% of the world’s population living in the villages of India, the Indian rural FMCG market is set to be a driving force for the industry at large.
The FMCG sector is trying to supply to introduce smaller packages of goods that will match the low incomes of rural areas, in order to increase in accessibility even more.
Some early shoots in the graph were seen in early June when the lock down was eased. 4.5% of the year on year value growth was seen in FMCG sales amidst this.
However a potential future is seen in the third quarter and significant growth is expected in light of the arrival of the festive season ahead.
But in long run, one can see FMCG has a potential future. This pandemic opened up the gates even to those who were skeptical before to use e-commerce before but now heavily dependent on them. This may be the next normal.
The e-commerce giant Amazon, now a days is to expand all of it’s service in all the sectors by entering in the new sectors trying to build tough competition for the existing players of that sector. Now, the company has joined India’s online food delivery market, and now focusing on becoming the market leader in this sector by giving tough competition to the top local players i.e. Swiggy and Zomato. Let us see the complete report on the topic, Amazon experimenting in food delivery services in India.
Insights of Amazon Food
The American-based e-commerce giant Amazon, has invested a good amount in their new venture i.e. around $6.5 billion in India. The name given to their brand new food delivery service is Amazon Food. At the present moment, the Amazon food is working in selected pin-codes of Bangalore i.e. 560048, 560037, 560066 and 560103. From the past news from many sources, it was heard that the company was originally planning to launch their food delivery service in India last year, which they pushed to match. No clear reason was provided by the company in this regards but later on they had to push it further more due to the nationwide stay-at-home order (National lockdown) by the Indian government, which they issued in late March before the immediate starting of their services.
E-commerce giant at present testing the food delivery service with the selected restaurant partners in Bangalore with some of the employees. They are going to expand this venture in the upcoming span of time.
Competition in food delivery services
The basic idea behind the Amazon’s entry into the food delivery market sector to try the new sector. Also, many of it’s rival in their sectors are presently started working in this sector. Google is also working in this sector indirectly with the help of their funded company i.e. Danzo. At present, Danzo (Google backed startup) is working in all types of delivery services and now has started delivering the food services.
Other startups like Zomato is itself working in this sector and has now acquired Uber Eats in the starting of the year. The biggest rival startup, Swiggy is also giving the tough competition in this sector, making this sector difficult for any type of future competition. After looking a great opportunity in this food and delivery sector, Amazon is also trying to experience this sector.
Amazon strategy behind Amazon food
Amazon is now promoting it’s Amazon prime services to their customers to experience all the facility under a single roof. The company was waiting to integrate this facility with their prime services. According to the company, this brand new integration of this service can help them in increasing their revenue and can help in achieving their goal of converting their business model into profits. This will also help them in acquire more customers which can become their potential customer and so they will be able to experience all the facility within the same brand name in the single servicing platform.
The Coronavirus or COVID-19 which started last year in December in Wuhan, China has impacted the global economy and no industry sector has remained immune to it. All businesses, startups and industries across the globe are coming up with safety measures to deal with the virus like asking employees to work from home, avoid social gatherings, etc. Foodtech startups are no exception to this.
Top Indian food delivery platforms Zomato and Swiggy together deliver an estimated 2.6 million orders every day. But they have taken multiple measures to deal with the situation. These measures ensure the safe food delivery considering the safety of delivery executive as well as consumers. The measures are helping these startups to keep operations going and to reduce any negative impact on consumer deliveries
Foodtech Startups to Follow Hygiene Practices
Indian foodtech startups Swiggy and Zomato have announced several safety measures in an effort to combat the novel coronavirus. While the Bengaluru based foodtech unicorn Swiggy already sent an email to all its consumers how they are taking the different measures to cope with the situation. Zomato soon followed suit with safekeeping measures of its own like contact-less delivery.
The main focus of the announcements is to inform people about different measures that food delivery platforms are taking to ensure that their delivery partners follow all the safety and hygiene guidelines approved by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare(MoHFW). They also announced that the consumer will now have the option of choosing to ask the delivery partner to leave the food at their doorstep. Some startups are also offering insurance and financial support to delivery staff in case they are infected with the virus
There are certain directives that these startups are following. They ensure that the crew member who assembles the food, the one who packs food and the delivery executive do not touch the food with bare hands and take all possible precautions to ensure hygiene. The delivery packets are sealed and delivered by a runner who drops the order at a pre-appointed spot usually outside the door and then watches from a safe distance while you pick up your order and go back inside.
Co-founder and CEO of Zomato, Deepinder Goyal explained this through a tweet that “A consumer can now choose for this option through our ‘delivery instructions’ feature.” An app update over the weekend will make this explicitly clear to everyone.” Through this option, the delivery partner will keep the delivery parcel on a clean surface outside the door. When the consumer receives a photo of the delivered food, the consumer can then pick up the package at their convenience.
As India prepares to face the current health crisis, Westlife Development, the company that owns and operates McDonald’s restaurants in West and South India, has launched contactless delivery service to deliver food to the customers’ doorstep. According to the company, McDonald’s India is ensuring that food reaches customers without being touched by bare hands and delivered safely with by following social distancing measures.
“Our customers’ safety has been and will continue to be our top priority. On one hand, we have increased the safety and hygiene processes at our restaurants. On the other hand, we are ensuring contactless delivery to retain consumers’ trust in McDonald’s. Both our consumers and the industry look up to McDonald’s for path-breaking initiatives and contactless delivery,” said Smita Jatia, managing director of Hardcastle Restaurants.
Online Food Deliveries Declining Fast
Unfortunately, even after adopting the hygiene practices, online food delivery has seen huge fall in demand. Online food delivery orders for Zomato and Swiggy have dropped 70% in the last 10 days as customers step back and top restaurants shut shop during lockdown induced by the Covid-19 virus outbreak. The reason behind this is that people do not want to perform any practices, which in any way, can expose them to the virus.
Their investors revealed that even before the lockdown, the orders had started declining. In the first two weeks of March, food delivery orders declined 20%. When lockdown was imposed, Swiggy and Zomato said about 60 to 70% of its cities would be shut for food delivery including few prominent ones. As a result, steady state of 2.5 million deliveries a day, the deliveries have fallen down quickly. In the last 10-15 days, online food delivery orders have dropped 70% to under 1 million a day.
But considering food delivery startups, the Grocery delivery apps are in demand more than ever not only in India but in many countries during this health crisis. As many countries are under lockdown, the governments are asking people to strictly avoid getting out of their houses to maintain social distancing. Hence, majority of the people are relying on the Grocery delivery apps to avoid social gatherings.
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the countries, grocery delivery apps have begun seeing record numbers of daily downloads, according to new data from app store intelligence firm Apptopia. The firm said that online grocery apps like Instacart, Walmart Grocery and Shipt hit yet another new record for daily downloads for their respective apps.
Typically, these apps see tens of thousands to as many as 20,000+ downloads per day. But on April 12, Instacart saw more than 38,500 downloads and Walmart Grocery saw nearly 54,000 downloads. Experts told the delivery strategies need to be better optimised at this time of uncertainty. Considering grocery is in high demand, this makes sense for all players involved in it.
In India too, Grofers, BigBasket and other grocery delivery apps have seen a boom in demand over the past week on the back of panic buying. As many consumers are stuck at home, they are heavily relying on these online grocery stores offering doorstep delivery. Seeing these demands, many foodtech startups are also turning towards these grocery sales to earn some revenue.
Food-delivery and restaurant discovery app Zomato has decided to try hands at the grocery sale as the category sees a major demand amid the Covid-19 outbreak. The Gurugram-based startup Zomato has decided to partner with e-grocers, Grofers and BigBasket, to sell food products and essentials on its platform by facilitating their deliveries.
Zomato & Swiggy have started to Deliver Grocery in Major Cities
Zomato has begun delivering grocery in more than 80 cities in India. Users can access this service by downloading the Zomato app and visit the Zomato Market section. Zomato Market identifies nearby grocery stores that are available and open for delivery. They have started grocery delivery in 80 plus cities across India to help with the supply of essentials.
CEO & founder of Zomato, Deepinder Goyal said, “Our delivery network in the country is the second best after India Post. Thus, we are ensuring that in every effort we put it to good use to serve the community. We would like to thank the government authorities, grocery stores, FMCG companies and other startups that have come forward to partner with us and support the community in this endeavour.”
Apart from its grocery deliveries, Zomato has also extended paid Zomato Gold memberships by two months at zero additional cost. This new extension is valid in India, UAE, Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Lebanon, Turkey, New Zealand, Portugal, and Qatar.
The food delivery app Swiggy is also not behind in this league. Swiggy has announced a new service to deliver groceries through the application. The lockdown has encouraged the company to spread this service to over 125 new cities across India. Swiggy will be providing essential commodities by partnering with numerous national brands.
Swiggy has launched a hyper local delivery service called ‘Genie’ that will pick and drop items from any local store that is open. The service is currently only available for essentials and even medicines. During the launch of the service in September last year, the service was labeled ‘Swiggy Go’.
Swiggy will be partnering with Hindustan Unilever Ltd., P&G India, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd., Dabur India Ltd., Marico Ltd., Vishal Mega Mart Pvt. Ltd., Adani Wilmar Ltd., Cipla Ltd to provide essential items across various cities.
Due to lockdown, Swiggy and Zomato are finding it difficult to grow online food deliveries but this has led them to partner with local grocery shops to provide essentials to the people who want to avoid social gatherings. But this has given people a good opportunity to maintain social distancing by ordering groceries from home only.