Swiggy, a leading food delivery and quick commerce firm, said Monday it has expanded its 10-minute food delivery service Bolt to more than 400 cities and towns across India, intensifying the quick-commerce race in the world’s most populous nation.
The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, which went public last month, said it has scaled up partnerships to over 40,000 restaurants, including global chains KFC, McDonald’s, and Starbucks, along with popular local establishments, to deliver fresh food to customers within 10 minutes.
The service, called Bolt, focuses on items requiring minimal to zero preparation time and operates within a 2-kilometer radius of customers. The new offering could help Swiggy claw back some market share in food delivery that it has conceded to its chief rival Zomato in recent years.
Rohit Kapoor, CEO of Swiggy’s Food Marketplace, said Bolt is “changing the way customers are experiencing food.” He added: “For the first time, people are getting food from their favourite restaurants to their doorstep, as fresh as possible.”
Initially launched in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune, Bolt has now expanded to smaller cities including Jaipur, Lucknow, and Ahmedabad, as well as Tier 2 and 3 cities such as Roorkie, Guntur, and Shillong.
Swiggy says its delivery partners are not informed of the distinction between Bolt and regular orders, and there are no incentives for fast delivery. Instead, speed is optimized through strategic restaurant partnerships and a limited 2-kilometer delivery radius.
The launch intensifies competition in India’s fast-growing quick-commerce market, which has grown by more than 100% in a year. Zomato’s Blinkit, Instamart (Swiggy’s quick-commerce offering), Nexus-backed Zepto, and Tata-owned BigBasket are changing the way millions of Indians shop, training consumers to expect instant gratification for an ever-expanding range of products.