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Over a year after piloting concierge services with Crew, consumer internet major Swiggy today announced restricting the premium concierge platform to a “dedicated personal travel concierge offering”. Crew was launched in June 2025 to allow users to find, shop and get delivered anything “from golf course to caddy bookings to reliable and clean cabs, sourcing exclusive hotel rates to even a Hawaiian shirt”. However, operating as a broader “personal concierge service” for over a year, Swiggy said it saw travel as the category with the strongest demand for such a service. Under its new avatar, Swiggy is positioning Crew as a “destination expert that plans, books and curates every moment of a journey, from the first spark of inspiration to the last memory shared, with on-site assistance through trips big and small.” Swiggy claims that the service is available across time zones and handles travel-related requests such as itinerary changes, local recommendations and other assistance while travellers are away from home. Human concierges use AI tools to respond to requests and manage them at scale. The app also offers “negotiated” hotel rates, proactive trip modifications, and curated local destination intelligence instead of algorithmic ad listings. It is available on iOS and Android for paid subscribers and operates on an invite-only basis. “The problem was never the destination. It was always the gap between the booking and the experience. That’s what we built CREW for. A personal travel concierge that stays with you before the trip, through the trip, and when the plan inevitably needs a new plan,” said Rohit Kapoor, CEO of Swiggy’s food marketplace, in a LinkedIn post. Swiggy is one of the largest players to foray into the concierge services provider market. With India expected to have over 10 Cr affluent consumers by 2027, as per a Goldman Sachs Research, several startups are targeting this demographic with on-demand or convenience-focused services. Ex-American Express executive Manoj Adlakha’s bootstrapped venture RedBeryl, Indulge Global of Shark Tank fame, and AI-driven household assistance startup Hulp are some of the examples of those operating within the broader concierge services segment. For Swiggy, Crew is one of the many experiments that it has undertaken in recent times. These include affordability-focused food delivery platform Toing, 10-minute food delivery offering Bolt, and clean-label private brand Noice. The company also shut professional services marketplace Pyng and quick food delivery app Snacc within months of their launches. To note, Swiggy also recently piloted an offline, retail store for Instamart. The spree of experimentation has helped Swiggy improve user stickiness across its offerings. More than 35% of Swiggy’s transacting users used multiple offerings on its platform during FY26 across food delivery, quick commerce, dining out and newer hyperlocal services. However, the company’s overall platform frequency declined to 4.07 orders per user per month in FY26 from 4.43 in the previous year. It stood at 4.48 in FY24. Further, it must be highlighted that many of Swiggy’s past experiments have also failed. These include Pyng, Swiggy Genie, and Snacc. “Crew was also introduced as part of our effort to explore newer convenience-led services. Not every experiment will scale at the same pace, but each helps us understand where our technology stack, fulfilment capability and consumer relationship can create future opportunities,” the company said in its annual report. On the financial front, Swiggy’s FY26 loss widened 33% YoY to ₹4,154 Cr while operating revenue rose 51% YoY to ₹23,053 Cr from ₹15,227 Cr. In Q1 FY27, the company managed to trim its net loss by 34% YoY to ₹791 Cr, while operating revenue rose 37% YoY to ₹6,812 Cr. During the same period, new businesses such as Toing and Crew generated ₹51 Cr in revenue and ₹131 Cr loss. Shares of Swiggy ended today’s trading session 1.03% higher at ₹270.25.
document fetched 2026-09-04 02:54 · canonical https://inc42.com/buzz/swiggy-narrows-crews-focus-to-travel-after-year-long-concierge-pilot