After Zomato and Zepto, Ola has begun exploring the plans of delivering the food in 10 minutes, and has already started a pilot programe through its new Ola Dash feature on the cab hailing app in select areas of Bengaluru.
Media reports have indicated that Ola is using the facilities of Mukunda Foods, a food robotic startup. It should be noted that the latter sold a little over 16 per cent stake to Ola rival Zomato for $5 million (Rs 380.7 crore).
However, Mukunda Foods does business with several other rival cloud-kitchen companies in India.
Critics skeptical over Ola's new plan
With Ola facing issues with delayed deliveries of its S1 series electric two-wheelers and a few vehicles catching fire, the critics say the company should first find solutions to existing problems than explore new things on a whim.
“It’s always understandable when there is a pivot to an adjacent business. But ride-hailing and food deliveries have different business models. One needs to understand who will be establishing Cloud kitchen brands and setting up a dense network of localised logistics — Ola itself or a logistics partner,” Sreedhar Prasad management consultant told Business Standard.
Ola Dash will find stiff competition from Zepto, Google-backed Dunzo, Zomato, Swiggy, and others, who recently raised millions of dollars to expand to more regions and also optimise their services. They all are fully focused on fast delivery of food and other consumer goods in the urban regions.
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