Food delivery aggregator Swiggy has now expanded Bolt – its 10-minute food delivery service – to over 400 cities and towns across the country. Originally launched just two months ago, Bolt has rapidly grown from an offering in six major cities to a nationwide service that caters to both metropolitan and emerging urban markets.
“Bolt is changing the way customers are experiencing food… With all the customer love we’ve received so far and the growing excitement from both national and local restaurants, expanding Bolt was an easy decision. We’re thrilled to bring this experience to even more cities and homes,” Rohit Kapoor, CEO of Swiggy’s Food Marketplace, commented on the matter.
Much like Instamart – which is a quick commerce service that delivers groceries and other household items within minutes, also owned by Swiggy – Bolt aims to deliver food within 10 minutes right to the doorstep of consumers, focussing on dishes that require minimal or no preparation time. This includes ready-to-eat items such as snacks, beverages, sandwiches, and breakfast options. To ensure that the quality and freshness of the food are maintained, the service limits its delivery radius to 2 kilometers. So consumers can order food like ice-cream and not worry about it melting before they get their hands on it (this sounds similar to the 10-minute food delivery service Zomato had piloted in 2022, before phasing it out the next year and rebranding it as Zomato Instant.)
Bolt was initially rolled out earlier this year, in October, in a handful of cities across the country. This includes Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune, and quickly gained traction. Currently, it has penetrated deep into the Indian market – having a presence in several Tier-1 cities as well, including Jaipur, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Indore, Coimbatore, and Kochi, as well as Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, such as Roorkee, Guntur, Warangal, Patna, Jagtial, Solan, Nashik, and Shillong.
According to Swiggy, Bolt has seen the highest adoption in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Following these regions, other states such as Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, West Bengal, Rajasthan, and Punjab have also shown strong adoption of the service. Currently, it has partnered with over 40,000 restaurants across the country, including the likes of KFC, McDonald’s, Burger King, Baskin Robbins, and Starbucks, as well as local favorites like Gwalia Sweets in Ahmedabad, Shiraz in Kolkata, Karachi Bakery in Hyderabad, and Irani Cafe in Pune. So consumers have a broad selection of foods to choose from. In addition to this, it also formed partnerships with local eateries – restaurants such as Varalakshmi Tiffins and Akhshay Tiffins have seen more than 10% of their orders processed through Bolt.