Food tech industry: a comprehensive demand-side and supply-side analysis

Abstract

India’s Food Tech Industry is pegged to reach $ 8 billion in a couple of year by a BCG Report. There are several players that are a part of this ecosystem – The aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato, the cloud kitchen players like Faasos, the restaurants, the delivery partners, and consumers. The whole food industry has taken a major hit because of Covid-19. However, the online food delivery is recovering and how! The numbers have already reached almost pre-covid, though dine-out is still a struggle. Experts say that Covid-19 has been a blessing in disguise for the Food Tech industry with increased focus on unit economics. Cloud Kitchens were pegged to be one of the most lucrative business segments in Food Techwith fundings nearly equal to food delivery model until 2017. A natural intuition would tell you that cloud kitchen will soar further enjoying the high tides of online food delivery. Cloud Kitchen however, has taken a hit, more visible with the failure of Swiggy’s Access business. This begs the question on whether cloud kitchen can actually disrupt the food ecosystem and should Zomato go all out on it. What felt like a strong proposition when we began this research, in the end has one clear answer – “Not now. Probably, not even in the future”. To arrive at this, we looked at the food tech industry from all possible angles, analysing every important stakeholder. From secondary research on the whole food industry including both pre-corona and post-corona analysis, to primary research involving consumer interviews, focused-group discussion and surveys, we have tried drawing inferences that are coherent. Finally, through conversation with the who’s who of the food tech industry, we got a broader insight into how the industry’s future looks like. In the process, we talked to leads of aggregators (Swiggy and Zomato), cloud kitchen leaders (Rebel Foods and FreshMenu) and Venture Captalists (SAIF Partners and Info Edge Ventures). The Food Tech industry is an ever evolving one, with major players diversifying their business. However, cloud kitchen may not be the business that adds up value to Zomato’s plans.