Suniel Shetty-Backed WAAYU Threatens Swiggy, Zomato With Zero Commissions
- ByStartupStory | May 10, 2023
For years, Zomato and Swiggy have dominated India’s food delivery market with no serious challengers. However, some competitors have emerged recently, such as ONDC, a government-backed digital commerce platform, and Thrive.
WAAYU, a new no-commission food delivery platform, has entered the Indian food delivery market to challenge the established duopoly of Swiggy and Zomato. The platform aims to help restaurants avoid high commissions charged by the established players.
Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty and the Mumbai-based Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association have backed WAAYU, which was founded by Anirudha Kotgire and Mandar Lande in late 2022. The platform aims to pass on the savings from its partnership with the association to customers to improve customer retention.
Suniel Shetty stated during the launch event on Monday that “the partnership with the association is enabling WAAYU to onboard thousands of restaurants and millions of customers”.
WAAYU, a new player in India’s food delivery market, has reportedly onboarded 1,500 restaurants in Mumbai and has achieved 25,000 downloads so far. The platform offers restaurant partners an online order management system, but with a zero-commission model that distinguishes it from competitors like Zomato and Swiggy.
This approach allows restaurants to maintain competitive pricing and offer greater value to their customers. By partnering with the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association, WAAYU has been able to acquire thousands of restaurants and millions of customers, as it seeks to challenge the established players in the market.
Shetty commented, “Through WAAYU, restaurants can introduce their own promotions and add value to their offerings, resulting in significant benefits.”
According to one of the cofounders, Anirudha Kotgire, “WAAYU has 16 revenue streams, but not all will be operational at the beginning. The company will start with a fixed fee deal with restaurants, charging INR 1,000 per month per outlet as an introductory price, which will later be increased to INR 2,000 a month. Additionally, there will be a one-time onboarding set-up fee of INR 3,650”.
Although WAAYU’s cofounders mentioned that restaurants could choose between Grab, Dunzo, or their in-house delivery personnel, they did not specify who would cover the delivery cost.
As the restaurants would pay approximately INR 2,000 per month to use WAAYU, it is possible that they may have to bear the delivery charges. Additionally, the platform has created a separate app for delivery staff to allow restaurants to oversee their delivery fleets.
WAAYU’s platform offers restaurants control over online ordering and instant payments via the UPI network, providing flexibility and countering Zomato and Swiggy’s longer payment cycles, which can negatively impact restaurant cash flow.
Lande stated that “their plan is to onboard over 10,000 restaurants in Mumbai, Pune, and nearby areas within the next three months, and later extend the reach of WAAYU to other metro and non-metro cities throughout India”.
WAAYU plans to integrate with ONDC, which positions itself as a major player in India’s food delivery market. It remains to be seen how this integration will work. Thrive, a food delivery startup backed by Coca-Cola, could also emerge as a potential rival to WAAYU as it seeks to challenge the dominance of Swiggy and Zomato with a more restaurant-friendly business model and lower commissions.
In the coming days, it will be interesting to observe how WAAYU fares against the dominance of Swiggy and Zomato in India’s $5.3 billion food delivery industry. This week, coincidentally, both Swiggy and Zomato faced setbacks, with Swiggy’s valuation cut to $5.5 billion by one of its major investors, Invesco, and Zomato experiencing a 7% intraday fall on Tuesday, ending its two-week-long bull run on the BSE.
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