Swiggy, Zomato Have A New Fight On Their Hands

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For years, Swiggy and Zomato have ruled the Indian foodtech sector with an iron fist, building vast restaurant networks and loyal customer bases that have made it difficult for new players to compete. But the duopoly is now facing fresh competition from three directions: Rapido’s Ownly, food delivery startup Swish’s new marketplace, Swish Go, and ecommerce giant Flipkart. Ownly is already handling around 50,000 orders a day in Bengaluru and entered Hyderabad just two weeks ago. Swish, which started with quick food delivery, is expanding into restaurant aggregation with its new marketplace, Swish Go. Ecommerce giant Flipkart, too, is testing its food delivery service, Eat In, in Bengaluru. All three are entering a market where consumers are already comfortable ordering food online. At the same time, restaurants are looking for alternatives to the high commissions charged by Swiggy and Zomato. But onboarding restaurants is only half the battle. What the emerging players need is to convince customers to order from their platforms regularly. Hence, it is only natural for us to ask if these new players can challenge the dominance Swiggy and Zomato have built over the years and what gives the duopoly enough steam to keep the burgeoning rivals at bay. Restaurants Are Hungry For An Alternative Restaurant owners have long complained about the commissions and other charges they pay to Swiggy and Zomato. While online orders have become a major source of sales, delivery platforms can eat into margins, especially as restaurants become more dependent on them. In July, National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) president and Wow! Momo cofounder Sagar Daryani told Inc42 that food delivery had grown from 10% of a restaurant’s business before Covid-19 to around 50% for some restaurants. This is where the new entrants see an opportunity. Rapido’s Ownly is trying to capitalise on the discontent by offering zero commission to restaurant partners. It has also integrated Ownly into the Rapido app, giving it access to an existing base of mobility users. The company can also draw on its delivery network for food orders, potentially reducing the cost of building a separate operation from scratch. Ownly is already processing over 50,000 orders a day in Bengaluru. After entering Hyderabad last month, it has onboarded 10,000 restaurants in the city, with plans to expand that network to 30,000. The expansion gives Ownly a route to compete beyond Bengaluru. Swish Go is taking a different approach. According to people familiar with the platform, its commission rates vary by order value, with one rate for orders below ₹100 and another for orders above that amount. Restaurant partners find this arrangement favourable, Inc42 has learnt. However, these attractive terms may not last forever. An observer in the restaurant business believes Ownly could introduce commissions as it grows, with Swish Go potentially following the same path. The current offers are a way to attract restaurants that are unhappy with Swiggy and Zomato. However, the person also questioned whether Swish ever intended to focus only on 10-minute food delivery. Established players such as Swiggy, Zepto and Rebel Foods have faced challenges with the format, making it difficult to sustain at scale. Swish Go’s pricing also puts it in competition with Swiggy’s Toing. By waiving packaging and platform fees, Swish Go appears to be betting on a lower-cost ordering experience to attract customers. The Real Battle Is Over The Users Getting restaurants to join a new platform is one challenge, and convincing them to order from it regularly is another. Food delivery is already an established market, and new players must now give customers a reason to try their platforms and keep coming back. An analyst cautioned that making money from these new services could prove difficult because their business models have not been tested at scale. This is pushing platforms towards restaurant aggregation, which allows them to offer a wider choice of food without running every kitchen themselves. Swiggy and Zomato have also experimented with new food delivery formats, but those bets have not lasted. Swiggy shut down Snacc, its standalone app for 10-15 minute food delivery, in February 2026. Eternal, Zomato’s parent company, discontinued Zomato Quick, its 15-minute delivery service, and Zomato Everyday, which offered home-style meals, in May 2025. Earlier this year, Rebel Foods also shut down Quickies. These show that even established platforms with large customer bases have struggled to make certain food delivery formats, primarily quick food delivery, work at scale. A new proposition may attract customers, but sustaining the business without compromising service or profitability will be crucial. Meanwhile, a sectoral expert said that Swiggy and Zomato’s biggest moat is their large user base. But that advantage does not make their position immune to defeat. Rapido already has a consumer base and delivery fleet it can draw on, while Swish is adding restaurants on top of its existing cloud kitchens and a loyal user base. Flipkart is also preparing to enter food delivery. With a user base of 500 Mn and the financial backing to fund expansion, Flipkart could also take a share of Swiggy and Zomato’s food delivery market. The company is likely to roll out the service before the end of 2026. The likes of Swish and Flipkart are making moves at a time when Swiggy and Zomato remain much larger businesses. Eternal reported adjusted food delivery revenue of ₹3,537 Cr in Q1 FY27, up 33% year-on-year (YoY) from ₹2,657 Cr in Q1 FY26. This was up from around ₹3,135 Cr in Q4 FY26. Swiggy’s food delivery revenue reached ₹2,208 Cr in Q1 FY27, growing 23% from ₹1,799 Cr a year earlier and ₹2,075 Cr in the previous quarter. Their restaurant networks are equally extensive. Zomato averaged around 3.28 lakh monthly active restaurant partners in Q1 FY27, while Swiggy reported over 2.7 lakh restaurant partners across more than 720 cities. These numbers show the scale of the duopoly that Ownly and Swish Go must compete against. Beyond attracting restaurants with better commercial terms, the new entrants will need to build a large, active customer base and generate enough repeat orders to sustain their businesses. They do not need to match Swiggy and Zomato across India immediately, but they must prove they can grow in select markets without relying indefinitely on low commissions and other attractive offers. Quick Commerce: The Duopoly’s Strongest Moat According to Anshika Jain, principal analyst at Counterpoint Research, Swiggy and Zomato’s biggest advantages are their established customer habits, wide restaurant selection and delivery networks built over years. Ownly’s expansion into Bengaluru and Hyderabad, along with Swish Go’s Bengaluru pilot, puts these advantages to the test in local markets. Since customers and restaurants can use multiple platforms, the incumbents will need to keep their prices competitive and service reliable. Restaurants will also expect a steady flow of orders as new players offer better commercial terms. However, Jain sees a higher entry barrier in quick commerce, which requires local inventory, supplier relationships, replenishment systems and substantial capital. These investments become defensible only when individual locations attract repeat demand and generate profits. Quick commerce may therefore offer Swiggy and Zomato a stronger defence than food delivery alone. For Swiggy and Zomato, food delivery remains an important source of business as they continue to invest in quick commerce. In due time, both businesses will turn self-sustaining at which point the new rivals may not have room to maneuver. Their scale means there is a lot more that rivals have to do to compete in terms of bringing in users, but it does not prevent these new platforms from targeting restaurants with different commercial terms and undercut the two largest players. For Flipkart, Rapido Ownly and Swish Go, the real test, for now, is whether early traction can turn into repeat orders. Only then can they loosen the duopoly’s hold. Edited By Shishir Parasher Creatives: Abhyam Gusai

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