Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola is set to launch grocery delivery services through the government-supported Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) in the coming days, according to media reports.
Currently, Ola has established itself as the second-largest buyer-side platform for food delivery on ONDC, following Magicpin, according to media reports. The company processes between 15,000 to 20,000 food orders daily and accounts for nearly one-third of the demand in significant markets such as Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru.
This isn’t Ola’s first venture into grocery delivery. In July 2015, the company launched an online grocery store in Bengaluru, shortly after introducing a food delivery app in March of the same year. The strategy was to use its fleet of cabs and drivers for grocery deliveries between 9 am and 11 pm. However, both services were discontinued within nine months, according to media reports.
In 2021, Ola made a comeback in the grocery delivery sector with Ola Dash, rolling out services in Mumbai and Bangalore through approximately 15 dark stores. Yet, after a year, Ola shut down Ola Dash and discontinued operations of all its dark stores, according to media reports.
Last year, Ola joined ONDC to provide food delivery services. “Our partnership with ONDC is thriving, and we’ve achieved remarkable 10X growth in recent months. We plan to continue leveraging the ONDC platform to explore new opportunities for our next growth phase,” said an Ola spokesperson, according to media reports.
