Magicpin, Rapido partner to challenge Zomato-Swiggy's food delivery duopoly

Magicpin and Rapido have joined hands to take on the duopoly of Zomato and Swiggy, whereby the country's third largest food delivery player will plug its nationwide restaurant network to Rapido-owned platform Ownly, people aware of the development said.

The partnership will open up magicpin's large restaurant base for Rapido, which launched Ownly in August, and has been looking to scale beyond Bengaluru.

Once the onboarding process is complete, Rapido's Ownly will have access to over 80,000 restaurants across the country, whereas magicpin will gain access to Rapido's delivery fleet in certain locations.

"Rapido primarily on-boards restaurants directly through our merchant team, with only a very small share coming via partners like magicpin. We also work with magicpin and others in select cities as a logistics provider, where our captain fleet supports last-mile deliveries.

"Our focus remains on building reliable, affordable, full-stack discovery and delivery solutions for merchants, while ensuring a seamless experience for customers and captains," a Rapido spokesperson told PTI in response to email queries on the partnership.

magicpin did not respond to an email seeking responses for the story.

Despite the promise of disruption, the magicpin-Rapido alliance faces a steep climb. Food delivery remains a tough, low-margin business, where balancing rider payouts, delivery costs, and customer discounts can make or break viability.

At the same time, the duo must focus on stronger relationships with brands and restaurants, many of whom already struggle with multiple delivery platforms.

Winning consumer trust poses another challenge. Zomato and Swiggy command deep brand loyalty built over years of reliability and speed -- benchmarks the new partnership will have to match, if not exceed.

PTI spoke to some restaurant chain owners on magicpin's database on the tie-up with Rapido.

Shakir Haq, CEO of NKP Empire Ventures, which operates the Empire Hotels & Restaurants chain, said India's food delivery ecosystem is maturing and opening up more for players, thereby creating a level-playing field for restaurants.

"magicpin being there for a long time, being successful and Rapido also coming along, it should be a great advantage for restaurants," Haq said, adding that the partnership opens up more avenues for restaurants to explore new customers.

Avinash Bajaj, Managing Director at Truffles Hospitality, said it's good for the food delivery market, while emphasising upon the importance of quality service for customers.

"magicpin is there then we will automatically be there because they (Rapido's Ownly) will just use magicpin as their partner," Bajaj said.

He observed that for both consumers and restaurant owners, it will offer more choices and potentially better economics.

Notably, Zomato has around 15 per cent stake in magicpin.

In September, Swiggy's board approved the sale of its stake in Roppen Transportation Services, which operates bike taxi aggregator Rapido, for a total consideration of nearly Rs 2,400 crore.

On July 31, Swiggy had said it is "actively re-evaluating" its investment in Rapido, as a potential conflict of interest may arise due to the latter's intention of entering the food delivery space.