Zomato Denies Shuttering Down Ambitious 10-Minute Food Delivery: 'Instant' To Be Rebranded

Online food delivery startup Zomato announced the launch of its 10-min food delivery pilot in March 2022. Now, around 10 months later, an ET report states that the company is looking to shutter down the service as "it didn't look like it would turn profitable."

Zomato has denied the reports and said that it is looking to "rebrand" the service.

A company spokesperson told Benzinga, that "Instant is not shutting down." The company looks to work on a new menu with its partners, the spokesperson added. 

The ambitious service looked to deliver a select menu of items to people in under 10 minutes. To achieve this, the food tech giant developed a network of ‘finishing stations' that stored best-selling items from top restaurants. According to the spokesperson, these finishing stations are still intact, and "no people are impacted by the decision."

During the launch, co-founder Deepinder Goyal said, "I started feeling that the 30-minute average delivery time by Zomato is too slow, and will soon have to become obsolete." 

The announcement failed to have a drastic effect on the company’s stock price, it remains to be seen how the market reacts to the rebranding news.

Price Action: Zomato shares traded 0.4% lower at ₹50.80 early Tuesday morning.

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