Published: October 20, 2026
StartupFeed Quick Take
- Flipkart food delivery, branded Eat-in by Minutes, is now open to over 8,000 of the company’s own staff.
- Zomato booked Rs 10,769 Cr of food delivery order value in the June quarter. Swiggy booked Rs 9,490 Cr.
- Next marker: a Bengaluru consumer launch, 88 days after the company said weeks.
Flipkart has expanded the pilot of its food delivery service, Eat-in by Minutes, to more than 8,000 employees, with branded riders already on Bengaluru roads.
Entrackr reported the expansion on October 20, 2026, citing people who know the plan. In September the test ran with a smaller group of Bengaluru staff.
The market is far bigger than the pilot. Zomato’s food delivery arm booked Rs 10,769 Cr of order value in the June quarter. Swiggy booked Rs 9,490 Cr.
A Flipkart food delivery launch has been close since July 24, 2026. That is 88 days. No customer outside the company can order yet.
Flipkart food delivery now sits in its own app tab
Eat-in by Minutes runs inside the main Flipkart app, on a tab of its own. There is no separate app yet.
Staff using it get order discounts and extra SuperCoins, the promotion material shows. The company is collecting feedback before it opens the service to the public.
The first staff test began in Bengaluru in early September 2026. The plan then was to reach all employees in the city around September 15.
The name is new and it matters. In July the service was called Eat In. It now carries the Minutes brand.
That ties a new, unproven service to a name customers already know. Flipkart Minutes delivers groceries and other goods in minutes.
Kalyan Krishnamurthy, who runs the Flipkart Group, set the clock himself in July.
“We will launch food delivery in the next few weeks.”
Kalyan Krishnamurthy, group chief executive, Flipkart. From an interview with Moneycontrol, July 24, 2026.
He said the company would start in one city, test the idea with customers, take their feedback and improve the product before scaling it.
The service runs on its own fleet and on ONDC
Eat-in by Minutes uses a rider fleet of its own and ONDC, the government-backed open network. Both choices are deliberate.
Riders in Eat-in by Minutes uniforms are already working in Bengaluru. They are not the riders who carry Flipkart Minutes grocery orders.
TechCrunch reported that the fleet runs through Ekart, the group’s own logistics arm. That is a costly choice.
Food and groceries move differently. Hot food needs insulated bags, tighter timing and a rider who waits at the counter.
A separate fleet also gives the company its own delivery data from day one. Ekart already handles last-mile delivery for the main shopping app.
Reports in August put the planned restaurant commission near 10%. Swiggy and Zomato are reported to charge 16% to 30%. Rapido’s Ownly charges restaurant partners nothing.
Zomato and Swiggy both made money last quarter
Both leaders turned a profit on food delivery in the June quarter. That is the market Flipkart is walking into.
Their Q1 FY27 shareholders’ letters show the scale. Zomato’s food delivery order value reached Rs 10,769 Cr, up 20.1% year-on-year.
Swiggy’s reached Rs 9,490 Cr, up 17.4%. The two companies measure order value differently, so the comparison is directional.
| Food delivery, June quarter | Zomato | Swiggy |
|---|---|---|
| Order value | Rs 10,769 Cr | Rs 9,490 Cr |
| Growth, year-on-year | 20.1% | 17.4% |
| Adjusted revenue | Rs 3,537 Cr | Rs 2,208 Cr |
| Revenue growth | 33% | 23% |
| Monthly restaurant partners | About 328,000 | 265,800 |
This is not a quiet market. Both leaders grew food delivery order value by more than 17% in the quarter.
Swiggy just lost restaurant partners for the first time
Swiggy’s monthly transacting restaurant partners fell to 265,800 in the June quarter. The quarter before, the figure was 275,400.
That is 9,600 fewer kitchens. It is also the first fall in five quarters. The run before it read 255,400, then 263,700, then 270,200, then 275,400.
Zomato averaged about 328,000 monthly active restaurant partners over the same quarter. Swiggy’s food delivery served 19.2 million monthly users.
A restaurant owner paying 16% to 30% has a reason to listen to a 10% pitch. Whether a 10% rate can also pay riders is the open question.
Rapido’s Ownly went live across Bengaluru on March 3, 2026, with about 20,000 restaurant partners signed up. It charges them no commission at all.
The edge here is not price. It is a shopping app that millions of Indians already open, and Walmart’s balance sheet behind the early losses.
Flipkart has not said when Bengaluru customers will get the service. It has not named a second city either.
What this means for you: If you own a restaurant in Bengaluru paying 16% to 30% to Swiggy or Zomato, a third buyer for your kitchen is close. Ask the onboarding team for the commission in writing before you sign, because the 10% figure is still reported, not confirmed.
StartupFeed Insight
The headline is 8,000 employees. The number that matters is 9,600, the restaurant partners Swiggy shed in a single quarter after four quarters of adding them. We counted that run ourselves from the letters. This fight is not for customers first. It is for kitchens, and the kitchens have started walking. A staff pilot is a cheap way to fix rider timing and packaging before one restaurant owner sees a cold order. Watch the Bengaluru restaurant bodies, not the app store. StartupFeed expects Eat-in by Minutes to open to Bengaluru customers before 31 December 2026, and to stay in one city through the March quarter.
By Avinash Mishra, Business Correspondent
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