What's Bistro, Zomato-led Blinkit's answer to Zepto Cafe?

As competition intensifies in the quick commerce space, existing players are vying for dominance through continuous innovation. After Zepto this week said it'll soon launch Zepto Cafe, a 10-minute food delivery service, Blinkit, a Zomato-led grocery delivery platform, has announced a 10-minute food delivery service called Bistro.

Bistro is the second iteration in the Zomato ecosystem after Instant, which was shut down less than a year after its launch in 2023 amid the company's focuss on profitability.

As per Blinkit, Bistro aims to deliver food, drinks, snacks, and meals in "minutes", while prioritising hygiene. Some key features of Blinkit Bistro are the delivery of "balanced, healthy meals" while maintaining high hygiene standards, it adds.

Bistro also promises a focus on "sustainability", with eco-friendly packaging in an effort towards reducing carbon footprint. Like Binkit, the company says the Bistro app will have a live order tracking feature to ensure seamless delivery.

Zomato's biggest rival in the food-tech space, Swiggy, also launched Bolt in October to provide food delivery in 10 minutes. Bolt is designed to deliver quick-to-prepare meals from popular restaurants and QSRs within a 2 km radius of the consumer. It focuses on dishes that can be delivered quickly without compromising on their taste, freshness, or quality. The service is already operational across six major cities -- Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Chennai, and Bangalore.

Quick commerce major Zepto has also announced the launch of a separate app for Zepto Cafe, which is its 10-minute food delivery unit, next week. Zepto co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha said Zepto Café is scaling rapidly, with around 100+ café launches a month. "We are already clocking 30K+ orders/day," said Palicha. The Zepto Cafe service has already been launched in key cities like Gurgaon, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

Blinkit parent Zomato reported a 389% year-on-year increase in consolidated net profit, reaching ₹176 crore in the second quarter, up from ₹36 crore a year ago. The growth was driven by strong performance in its quick commerce arm Blinkit and restaurant supplies business Hyperpure. The company’s revenue rose 68% year-on-year to ₹4,799 crore.

Blinkit showed strong growth in Q2 FY25, with revenue increasing from ₹505 crore to ₹1,156 crore, almost a 120% uptick. Acquired in 2022, erstwhile Grofers, Blinkit's dark store count reached 791 by the end of the quarter, and the average order value increased to ₹92.9, up from ₹78.8 in the previous quarter. Zomato plans to grow its store count to 2,000 by 2026.

Quick commerce has come a long way in India from the fiscal year 2021-22 when it was written off by most as non-essential and impractical due to high cost and cash burn. When Zepto founders Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra promised groceries in 10 minutes, critics said their business would bleed to death as the average order value was just ₹150-200 and delivery cost ₹15-20 per order.

In 2024, it was the fastest-growing retail channel in India, encouraging companies to join the bandwagon: Walmart-Flipkart have started ‘Minutes’ in Mumbai and the National Capital Region; Tata Group’s BigBasket, which launched BBNow in 2022, has fully switched to quick delivery before it goes public in 2025; Amazon is planning delivery in 10-30 minutes; Reliance Retail is betting on JioMart.