DAVOS: Anticipating sustained growth in its food delivery business, a top Swiggy executive said the company has yet to tap 85-90 per cent of the market in India, and there are no plans for global expansion yet, given the huge potential available back home.
On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Swiggy’s Food Marketplace CEO Rohit Kapoor said India still represents a fairly large opportunity for change, as there is nothing on the cards right now for global expansion.
And opportunities are there, not just in food but also in multiple other businesses across the country, he said. In food, particularly, we have been guiding the markets to an 18-20 per cent growth rate year-on-year, and I think trends are holding up to that even if you look at our last quarter numbers, he said.
Asserting that the food penetration level in India is way below not just Western numbers but even some Southeast Asian and Asian countries, he said this creates a huge headroom.
“I think the work cut out there is not just to grow food delivery, which roughly grows about two times the food market, but the entire food sector can grow a lot if the entire ecosystem and the government come together,” he said.
Asked about the size of the untapped market in India, he said it’s probably about 10-12 per cent of India that has ever used food delivery, which means 85-90 per cent has not.
AI democratising intelligence in food delivery business
Kapoor has said it is providing democratized intelligence to all stakeholders, ranging from its top management to delivery partners to restaurants. He said they are using Gen AI across their businesses and that it is already quite evolved. “For example, somebody calls customer service, and I have the ability through Gen AI to understand the quality of that discussion, and I can do something about it immediately. That’s a power that Gen AI is unleashing,” he said.