AviSwiggy, which is a food delivery platform as of now, has plans to invest INR 75 crore in the coming six months to expand its cloud kitchen or the delivery only infrastructure business, according to the report.
This takes the total investment, which is made by the Naspers backed company into its cloud kitchen business – Swiggy Access to as much as around INR 250 crore.
The expansion will take the plans to around 14-15 additional smaller cities and towns, which includes the Surat, Guwahati, and Tirupur. It comes at a time when the industry is much more likely to get the hyper-competitive with the Amazon and Zomato Infrsatrcuture arms, all eyeing a share of the same market.
“There is a fundamental mindset shift which is coming through (in restaurants)on the back of cloud kitchens it is easier to expand,” said Vishal Bhatia, CEO, New Supply, Swiggy. “The plan for Swiggy Access is to facilitate leasing, construction, and marketing. A bulk of the investment goes into setting up the facility,” he said. Based on the revenue-sharing model, Swiggy Access runs 1,000 kitchens across 14 cities. This business contributes about 3-4% of overall order volume or 1.5 million orders in a month. “However, in the neighborhood that Swiggy Access operates, we meet anywhere between 15-20% of order volume,” said Bhatia. Swiggy claims to have created 8,000 jobs through Access and looks to add 7,000 more in the next six months.