New Delhi: Ride-hailing major Uber Technologies Inc. on Wednesday launched its food delivery service UberEATS in the National Capital Region as part of a strategy to expand to six Indian cities this year.
The service is rolled out in Gurugram and will be expanded to other parts of NCR in future, Uber said. About 300 restaurants have signed up so far in Gurugram. This is the second city for UberEATS after it launched in Mumbai on 2 May.
Uber has hired Faiz Abdulla, who was most recently with Housing.com, as general manager for Delhi-NCR region. Abdulla earlier set up two food businesses—a quick service restaurant chain Kaboom and ice cream brand Sucres des Terres—in Mumbai, the company said.
A standalone app, UberEATS allows users to order food from nearby restaurants. The app curates meal recommendations and restaurants choices based on users’ past searches. It allows live-tracking of the order and online payment through Paytm.
Uber started the online food ordering vertical in 2014, and launched it as a separate app starting with Toronto, Canada, in December 2015. It has since grown to cover 97 cities across 29 countries, Uber said.
“We are excited about going live in Gurugram today and aim to expand the service area to New Delhi and other parts of the National Capital Region soon,” Abdulla said at a press conference announcing the launch.
“The service has received a great response from users in Mumbai,” said Bhavik Rathod, head of UberEATS India. “We initially launched in four areas, Bandra, Parel, Powal and Andheri West, and in about eight weeks, have expanded to cover all of Mumbai.”
Like its ride-hailing business, UberEATS hires delivery agents who have their own two-wheelers. It has a separate user interface for customers, delivery agents and restaurants.
Rathod said restaurants gain value from partnering with UberEATS as it delivers analytics—what food items are working and ways to increase preparation, and hence delivery time—helping them increase their business.
