One-year-old Swiggy Bolt sees wide adoption as it aces the 10-minute hunger games

New Delhi: A year after its launch, Bolt emerges as Swiggy’s fastest growing bet. The 10-15 minute meal delivery service expanded to 700 cities, up from 500 in May; As consumers warm up to 10-12 minute delivery for coffee and samosas, 20% of restaurants listed on Swiggy are now registered on Bolt.

Rohit Kapoor, managing director of Swiggy Food Marketplace, said Bolt contributes more than 10% to the food delivery platform’s overall orders and the share is expected to increase further as availability increases. Mint in an interview.

While the company did not give a growth forecast for Bolt, Kapoor maintained an 18-20% growth forecast for its overall food delivery business.

“Consumers come back when they realize they can get a coffee or biryani in 10 minutes. Restaurants, seeing the demand, start creating special menus for it. This is a unique advantage we have,” he added. Swiggy has a presence in 718 cities.

More restaurants are tweaking their offerings for Bolt, Kapoor said. “It doesn’t consume significant cash on our end. Every order on Bolt is profitable. It’s good in terms of frequency and uptake,” he said. “It’s 100% platform-driven; everything comes from outside kitchens.”

In the September quarter, Swiggy’s food delivery business reported a 19% year-on-year growth in gross order value (GOV). ₹8,542 crore as its users increased by 22% to 17.2 million.

In anticipation of demand

Bolt was launched in October 2024, anticipating the growing demand for faster delivery due to the rapid adoption of fast trading platforms. Consumers now want faster delivery on food and fashion.

Flash commerce player Zepto offers express delivery of tea, coffee and snacks through Zepto Café, which has recently scaled back its operations, citing weak demand and the need to devote resources to its core business.

Eternal (formerly Zomato) launched Bistro last year under its fast-paced commerce platform Blinkit to offer snacks, meals and drinks delivered in 10 minutes. It also ended experiments with express delivery on its core food-ordering app to focus on Bistro.

In May, Swiggy said demand for the Bolt was increasing in tier 2 and 3 towns as well as metros. It had a network of 45,000 restaurants offering fast delivery for burgers, poha, samosas and other food items.

Kapoor did not share the current number of restaurants offering the service.

“The cities are well covered and we are focusing on higher use cases and greater availability of Bolt services for our customers. When we show volume to our restaurant partners and there is demand, they can very quickly select menus for Bolt,” he said.

In the midst of growth

The figures come as India’s food services sector is set to cross $120-125 billion by 2030, according to Kearney’s estimates, marking an absolute growth of around 60 per cent from $78 billion in 2025.

On the regulatory front, Kapoor said the company welcomed the country’s new labor rules announced last week. Under the recently announced Social Security Law (2020), platforms are required to contribute 1-2% of annual turnover to a special social assistance fund; This rate is limited to 5% of payments made to temporary employees.

Based on available information, it does not expect any material impact of social security norms on its business sustainability, cost structure or long-term financial performance, the food aggregator said in a filing to the stock exchanges on November 22.

“Overall, it provides clarity and structure for a sector that is no longer a small part of the economy. The guiding framework was much needed. It’s nice to have structure that comes from a central place,” said Kapoor. “We are waiting for the finer details, so we don’t know the exact impact yet, but structurally it is a positive development.”

About the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, Kapoor said the collector is looking into the matter. The DPDP Act will impact e-commerce platforms, especially how they collect customer data. “We have no comment yet; we will still comply. We will be ready for it. We are working on it and getting an idea,” the CEO said.