Zomato to buy grocery delivery platform Blinkit in $578m deal

Blinkit has an average delivery time of not more than 15 minutes.

Food delivery platform Zomato has proposed to acquire grocery delivery platform Blinkit in a $578m deal. 

Of this, $570m will be for the acquisition of Blink Commerce Pvt Ltd. and $8m for the acquisition of the warehousing and ancillary services Hands on Trades Pvt Ltd.

“Quick commerce increases our addressable market, the potential profit pool and also makes our business more defensible. The peak demand times for food delivery are also complementary to the quick commerce demand peaks in non-meal times,” Zomato CFO Akshant Goyal said.

“This will help increase our hyperlocal delivery fleet utilisation and reduce the cost of delivery.”

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Blinkit has an average delivery time of not more than 15 minutes in the month of May 2022. The company also has visibility into inventory owned by third-party distributors and retailers that stock around 4,000 stock-keeping units. 

On top of this, Blinkit facilitates last-mile delivery of products to customers from the dark stores with a delivery radius of typically less than 2 kilometres. 

In May 2022, Blinkit reported a gross order value of INR4,028m (approximately $53.7m), which is equivalent to one0fifth of Zomato’s monthly average. 

“Grocery is the hook for quick commerce, but it is not just about grocery. Quick commerce naturally extends across multiple categories including beauty & personal care, electronics, OTC pharma, stationery, and other gift items,” Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said.

Citing the RedSeer, Goyal said the total commerce market in India is worth $1.3t, which could lead to the quick commerce emerging as a significant channel of demand for customers at least in the top cities.

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