How many bike-taxis do you need to make a food delivery? Swiggy ...
30 October 2024
How many bike-taxis do you need to make a food delivery? Swiggy and Rapido will find out soon
In the beginning of this year, foodtech giant Swiggy believed it had cracked the perennial problem plaguing the industry: a shortage of delivery personnel.
With most staffers being gig workers who tend to work for the highest-paying platform at any given time, the scarcity becomes more acute during peak hours (breakfast, lunch and dinner times). And the bidding wars for delivery personnel drive up costs for these platforms. So, what was Swiggy’s solution? It gave delivery personnel the option to do bike-taxi rides during non-peak hours and incentivised them for doing more work in a day, in an attempt to retain them during peak hours. In January, the food-delivery platform conducted a trial run in India’s southern city of Chennai to gauge delivery partners’ interest in this service and whether it led to increased earnings for them. The trial was made possible by Swiggy’s investment of Rs 950 crore ($125 million) in bike-taxi company Rapido nearly nine months ago for a 15% stake, which made Swiggy the second-largest shareholder after investment firm Westbridge Capital. This valued Rapido at $830 million, more than 3X of its previous valuation.
How many bike-taxis do you need to make a food delivery? Swiggy and Rapido will find out soon In the beginning of this year, foodtech giant Swiggy believed it had cracked the perennial problem plaguing the industry: a shortage of delivery personnel. With most staffers being gig workers who tend to work for the highest-paying platform at any given time, the scarcity becomes more acute during peak hours (breakfast, lunch and dinner times). And the bidding wars for delivery personnel drive up costs for these platforms. So, what was Swiggy’s solution? It gave delivery personnel the option to do bike-taxi rides during non-peak hours and incentivised them for doing more work in a day, in an attempt to retain them during peak hours. In January, the food-delivery platform conducted a trial run in India’s southern city of Chennai to gauge delivery partners’ interest in this service and whether it led to increased earnings for them. The trial was made possible by Swiggy’s investment of Rs 950 crore ($125 million) in bike-taxi company Rapido nearly nine months ago for a 15% stake, which made Swiggy the second-largest shareholder after investment firm Westbridge Capital. This valued Rapido at $830 million, more than 3X of its previous valuation.
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