INDIA – One of India’s largest restaurant search and discovery platform, Zomato has announced that it has acquired Lucknow-based developer of customized drones to enhance drone-based deliveries in India.
According to ET Retail report, TechEagle will help in creating a hub-to-hub delivery network powered by hybrid multi-rotor drones.
TechEagle was founded in 2015 by IIT Kanpur alumni Vikram Singh Meena works with a prime focus on custom-made drones capable of carrying up to 5 kg payloads.
“We are currently at the early stage of aerial innovations and are taking baby steps towards building a tomorrow wherein users can expect a drone to deliver the food they ordered online,” said Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal.
“We believe that robots powering the last mile delivery is an inevitable part of the future and hence is going to be a significant area of investment for us.”
“Our first ‘delivery job’ currently is to design multi-rotor drones that can pick up a payload under 5 kg and set up drone delivery circuits for reducing the last mile delivery leg.
We believe that robots powering last-mile delivery is an inevitable part of the future and hence is going to be a significant area of investment for us,” he said.
Zomato said food delivery business currently contributes about 65 per cent to its overall revenue.
The company which delivers 22 million monthly orders, aims to become the market leader in the food delivery space in India.
Drones in food delivery
In India, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) legalized flying commercial drones and announced a policy called Drone Regulations 1.0.
While these guidelines banned the use of drones for delivery of goods and food, on September 19, minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha hinted at including a clause on the application of drones for ecommerce and food delivery in the draft.
The ministry legalized flying of commercial drones legal from December 1 with mandatory registration for the pilot and the owner, along with the drones.
Delivery of goods by drones is poised to boost logistic capabilities & the viability of many-to-many commerce even as ecommerce continues to grow in India.
According to research, the drone-driven market globally is estimated to be more than US$10 billion and in India, experts estimate that market opportunity could soon exceed hundreds of billions of rupees.
Uber announced that it plans to launch food-delivery drones by 2021 as it looks to venture in delivery with drones.
The company already owns UberEats, which lets people deliver food from local restaurants.
