After , Rapido is finally unveiling its food delivery platform Ownly, partnering with restaurants affiliated with the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI).

will take on the duopoly of Swiggy and Zomato and begin its pilot in Bengaluru by the end of June 2025.

Details seen by Inc42 around Rapido’s food delivery offering, reveal that the company will not charge a commission from restaurant partners for every order, nor will it have platform fees and packaging costs that are fairly common on Zomato and Swiggy.

Rapido Ownly is also introducing fixed delivery charges per order alternating between INR 10 per order or INR 25 per order for the restaurant, depending on the order value. While most deliveries will be conducted by Rapido driver partners, Ownly will also work with existing delivery fleets of large restaurants at zero cost, the company claimed.

As per the delivery terms for restaurants, Ownly will charge INR 10 per order under INR 100 in total value, with customers paying INR 20 as delivery fee for every order. For orders above INR 100, delivery costs will be a flat INR 25 (exclusive of GST).

“Our basic belief is that, online food as an experience and from a consumer expectation standpoint, is a completely different product. We want to find solutions that apply to this differentiated product. We also believe that growth in this market will be driven by structural change – either in the cost structures that govern this activity or in the offerings that drive demand, ” Rapido explains in the note about Ownly circulated to NRAI members.

In comparison to this model, NRAI insiders say that Swiggy and Zomato typically charge around 25% to 35% commission per order, in addition to other fees such as advertising, discounting and packaging charges, which are often passed on to the end consumer.

“NRAI has been working with Rapido for the last 6 months, helping Rapido to formulate the right commercial structure and logistic structure for restaurant and food delivery,” a source told Inc42.

While Zomato and Swiggy have spent years and billions of dollars acquiring and retaining users, Rapido is starting from scratch. Its primary proposition for consumers is that the price of a dish is the final price the customer pays.

Rapido says it is committing to creating a level-playing field for all restaurants by not taking commissions and cross subsidising delivery costs. “In return we want you to commit to pricing dishes in your restaurant (offline/in-house) the same as on our platform (online/delivery),” Ownly’s pitch document said.

The other potential hook for consumers is the affordability of meals offered by Rapido Ownly restaurant partners. The ride-hailing unicorn claimed that online food delivery is expensive and a majority of Indian consumers are locked out as a result.

“Every person should have the luxury of choice and the ability to order a reasonably priced meal.

To enable this, we are asking our restaurant partners to commit to providing at least 4 (or more) meal options below INR 150,” Rapido said in the document.

It also urged restaurants to build affordable ‘meals’ into their existing menus, which will be surfaced more prominently to consumers. Rapido claims that affordability will allow restaurants to improve their own discovery rather than relying on discounts.

“Along with your entire menu, your meals would be front and centre on our platform. On a no-discounts platform such as this, that is looking to bring price and product back into the spotlight, your meals act as your primary visibility driver.”

With no commissions from restaurants and fewer charges for consumers to pay, the big question is how Rapido Ownly will earn money. It is charging a nominal fee from restaurants as delivery fees, but this is unlikely to cover the full cost of running a food delivery platform.

“Once we have brought about real structural change in delivery prices we will look to charge a flat subscription fee from restaurants. We will always remain zero commission,” Rapido assured restaurants looking to hop on board.

Unlike Zomato and Swiggy, which offer marketing solutions for restaurants to extend reach, Rapido said that it hopes to create real value for consumers based on the levers of price and product. “Over time, for restaurants that want to offer discounts, we will provide them with the tools and data necessary to provide discounts to customers of their choice. We will however, never look to use discounting as a push to lower prices on the platform or push our partners to do so”

Rapido has some experience in taking on established incumbents such as Ola and Uber with zero-commission models in the ride-hailing industry, where the company claims to have reached the second position in terms of market share, dethroning Ola Consumer.

Founded a decade ago by Rishikesh SR, Pavan Guntupalli, and Aravind Sanka, Rapido after raising $200 Mn (INR 1,660 Cr) in a Series E funding round led by existing investor WestBridge Capital.

The startup trimmed its losses by more than in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) compared to INR 675 Cr in the previous fiscal year. As reported by Inc42, the company expects to .

Incidentally, this is the NRAI’s second formal attempt to rival the Zomato-Swiggy duopoly after banking on Open Network For Digital Commerce (ONDC) buyer apps such as Paytm, Ola Foods and Magicpin for growth. ONDC was seen as a way for NRAI restaurant partners to break away from the two biggest food delivery apps.

For years, the NRAI has consistently come out over heavy discounting, lack of transparency, high commissions and heavy ancillary charges for restaurants. As per the NRAI, this has made food delivery more expensive for consumers.

ONDC was seen as the affordable option, but none of the ONDC buyer apps were primarily food delivery platforms. As a result, the experience was fragmented, with fulfillment, customer support and other aspects besides the listing of menus being handled by other partners of the open network.

Rapido Ownly is looking to recreate this very model, but with its own delivery fleet and over 30 Mn monthly transacting users. Rapido’s pitch to restaurants is built around pillars of fairness and transparency in pricing and data.

has also tried to break the duopoly, but it has close to 1 Mn users after two years of operations. It’s one thing to say that restaurants want no commissions, but displacing Zomato and Swiggy takes a lot more. Other players have tried to break through, only to retreat, while some like Uber Eats and Foodpanda eventually got acquired without too much success.

Some might say that food delivery is slowing down because of how expensive the proposition is. If Rapido indeed manages to steal some of the market share from Zomato and Swiggy, will these incumbents simply sit back and watch?

While NRAI-affiliated restaurants might jump at the chance of having an alternative to the two biggest players, Rapido’s proposition remains untested and if it proves successful, Zomato and Swiggy will finally have a real challenger.

Edited By Nikhil Subramaniam

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