Flipkart’s Food Bet, Pronto Verified Service, and Wow! Momo Backs Tigers' Pitch

Flipkart is right to enter food delivery, but the business will be difficult if it treats ONDC as a shortcut into a market built on local density, daily habits and operational discipline.

India’s online food-delivery market was worth about $9 billion in FY25 and could reach $25 billion by FY30. Zomato controls roughly 55% to 58% of the market, with Swiggy holding most of the rest. Food is one of the few large consumer-internet categories where Flipkart does not yet have a meaningful daily presence.

That explains the interest. Fashion, electronics and travel are occasional purchases, while food can bring customers back every day. If people start opening Flipkart for meals, the company can cross-sell groceries, quick-commerce orders, payments, travel and credit. Zomato and Swiggy built broader ecosystems around food. Flipkart is trying to add food to an ecosystem it already has.

ONDC gives Flipkart a useful way to build its restaurant network. Restaurants often dislike paying commissions of 20% to 30% to the established platforms. ONDC-linked transactions can bring that closer to 3% to 5%, allowing Flipkart to offer restaurants better economics and build a catalogue quickly.

The limitation is that ONDC mainly helps with listing and access. It does not solve customer discovery, delivery reliability, rider shortages during peak hours, cancellations, packaging problems or food arriving cold. Rapido’s Ownly has shown that lower commissions can attract restaurants, but that alone does not guarantee a reliable experience for customers.

Amazon Food and Uber Eats faced the same problem. Both had capital, technology and recognizable brands, but neither built enough local density to make restaurant delivery work. Flipkart’s logistics advantage may also be overstated. Ekart was built for parcels, while Minutes operates through controlled dark stores. Restaurant delivery is different because thousands of kitchens prepare food at different speeds, and customers usually blame the platform when orders are delayed.

The established players are not standing still. Zomato and Swiggy have improved their food-delivery economics through platform fees, advertising, loyalty programmes and better rider utilisation. Zomato’s food margin has reached roughly 5.5% of GOV in some recent periods, while Swiggy has moved closer to 3% to 3.3%. Both can respond with discounts and restaurant incentives without having to learn the category from scratch.

China offers a useful comparison. JD and Alibaba have used commerce, logistics and payments to challenge Meituan, but those efforts required substantial capital. Existing ecosystem advantages do not automatically overcome dense local networks.

Flipkart’s sensible route would be to start with a few Bengaluru micro-markets, connect food closely with Minutes, super.money and loyalty benefits, and offer restaurants clearly better economics. Otherwise, the venture could repeat the mistakes that forced Amazon Food to shut down.

Let’s go through what else is happening in Indian startup world - Grab your simmering cup of StartupChai.in and unwind with our hand-brewed memes.

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“Swagat Nahi Karoge Humara”: Flipkart to Enter Food Delivery, Take on Zomato, Swiggy and Rapido

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1. Zetwerk has raised Rs 500 Cr in pre-IPO funding from Bharat Value Fund at a valuation of about $4 Bn. The round comes days after SEBI cleared Zetwerk’s IPO.
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2. Veefin has received board approval to raise ₹35 Cr through non-convertible debentures (NCDs), giving it fresh capital without diluting shareholder ownership.

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