What's happening
Flipkart has expanded the internal pilot of its food-delivery service 'Eat-in by Minutes' from a few hundred employees to more than 8,000 staff in Bengaluru, according to reporting by TechCrunch and Entrackr on October 20, 2026 — the clearest signal yet that the Walmart-owned e-commerce giant is serious about taking on Zomato and Swiggy.
The service lives as a dedicated tab inside the main Flipkart app, alongside its travel and quick-commerce 'Minutes' verticals. Restaurants are being onboarded through the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) as well as direct sign-ups, while deliveries run on a dedicated rider fleet operated by Flipkart's logistics arm Ekart — 'Eat-in by Minutes' branded riders have already been spotted on Bengaluru roads.
The commission pitch
Flipkart's wedge is restaurant pricing. Sagar Daryani, president of the National Restaurant Association of India, told TechCrunch that Flipkart has pitched a base commission of around 10% — less than half the 20–25% charged by Zomato and Swiggy — with total merchant costs expected to stay around 15–16%. A public launch is expected by the end of October 2026, with expansion to five or six cities by year-end, though Flipkart has not formally confirmed the timeline.
The prize is large: Zomato's food delivery arm booked ₹10,769 crore of order value in the June quarter, while Swiggy booked ₹9,490 crore. Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy first announced food-delivery plans in July 2026.
Why it matters for founders
Flipkart is attacking the duopoly's weakest point — restaurant commissions, not consumer discounts. For founders, it's a case study in wedge strategy: when incumbents are entrenched with users, enter through the supply side's pain point and let the partners pull you into the market.