Jeff Bezos teams up with Narayana Murthy to enter India’s food delivery biz

Amazon’s entry in the food delivery business comes at a time when Zomato and Swiggy have started cutting back on discounts

Amazon is all set to start its food delivery business in India from Bengaluru next month, says a news report in The Economic Times. The launch of the service, which would be offered as part of either Amazon’s Prime Now or Amazon Fresh platform, could happen as soon as next month. With this, Amazon will take on estabished players such as Zomato and Swiggy.

Executives at two restaurants, who did not want to be named, confirmed that Prione Business Services, a joint venture between Infosys cofounder NR Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures and Amazon India, has been signing contracts with brands to list on Amazon, offering 10-15% commissions, the report said. The report points out the e-commerce giant had already started pilot testing its service in select parts of Bengaluru, and by March, it will be rolling out to other parts of the country, says a news report in Dainik Bhaskar

Amazon’s entry into the food delivery market would create new challenges for Prosus Ventures -backed Swiggy, and Zomato, a 10-year-old startup that acquired Uber’s Eats business in India for about $180 million in January. Amazon’s entry in the food delivery business comes at a time when Zomato and Swiggy have started cutting back on discounts. Last month, Bezos told the audience at an Amazon event in New Delhi that the company plans to invest $1 billion in India.

‘Food doesn’t have religion’: Zomato after customer seeks non-Muslim rider

The company stood its ground and refused to change the delivery executive

Food delivery company Zomato is winning the internet after it refused on Wednesday to resolve a customer’s complaint about being assigned a Muslim delivery executive for his food order.

“Food doesn’t have a religion. It is a religion,” the company tweeted in response to the customer’s request for change of the rider. On Tuesday night, a man tweeted about cancelling his order placed on Zomato as the designated rider was a “non-Hindu”.

“Just cancelled an order on Zomato they allocated a non hindu rider for my food they said they can’t change rider and can’t refund on cancellation I said you can’t force me to take a delivery I don’t want don’t refund just cancel,” Amit Shukla, a resident of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, tweeted.

In a series of tweets, he also shared screenshots of his conversation with Zomato’s customer care, saying he would take up the issue with his lawyers. The company stood its ground and refused to change the delivery executive. ..(Read More)