Indian ride-hailing service Rapido has expanded its food delivery platform, Ownly, across Bengaluru, moving beyond its pilot phase in select neighbourhoods, according to The Business Line.
The rollout and the company’s next steps were discussed during a town hall hosted by the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), where Rapido’s new initiatives head Vivek Vashishta spoke to restaurant partners.
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Ownly had been piloted since mid-August in Koramangala, HSR Layout and BTM Layout. Vashishta said the service is now operationally live across the whole of Bengaluru.
He added that the company will soon begin a marketing push aimed at customer acquisition in the city.
At the town hall, Rapido also presented Ownly as a zero-commission platform for restaurants.
Vashishta said: “There are absolutely no charges to restaurants. There are no commissions, there are no marketing fees, there are no subscription fees.”
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By GlobalDataUnder the revised approach, delivery costs will be borne entirely by customers through a per-kilometre fee, he said. During the pilot, delivery fees were waived for customers.
The new model marks a departure from Ownly’s earlier structure, in which restaurants shouldered much of the delivery cost. This included a Rs59 ($0.65) fee for orders above Rs400 ($4.41) and Rs29.50 for orders between Rs100 and Rs400, with costs split for orders below Rs100.
NRAI vice-president Pranav Rungta said: “When you set a price which is listed on your delivery platforms, this price has included the cost of commission which you are paying to the current aggregators, and you have bundled in the cost of advertisement and visibility and everything else.”
On wider expansion, Vashishta indicated Ownly is looking beyond Bengaluru and is targeting other large cities, with Tier-1 markets among the priorities, saying: “People know that they can isolate us in this one city – that we don’t really mean business.”
He noted that while it would take time to scale across Rapido’s 600-city network, Tier-1 cities and selected Tier-2 and Tier-3 locations are “very definitely in the plan”.
Vashishta also addressed how Ownly expects to generate revenue over time: “In the beginning, we’re not going to be earning money.”
He added that the platform would later charge customers a small margin over delivery costs: “Instead of saying that we’ll take Rs10 from 100 customers, we are asking the question — can we take Rs2 from 1,000 customers.”
Vashishta also said Ownly is being built without discounts, with restaurants expected to rely on pricing and product as their main tools.
Operationally, Ownly will use a dedicated food delivery fleet alongside Rapido’s wider rider network. Vashishta said the company will initially prioritise the dedicated fleet, citing its training for food deliveries.
He also said Ownly has integrated with POS systems, including Urban Piper and Rista, among others, noting that restaurants will not be charged for visibility or customer data, and Ownly will take liability for delivery mishaps.
