Can Rapidos Ownly beat Zomato-Swiggy? - Indian Startup News 306 [RfXjcJGQe0J]
- Download Finanjo here 00:00 - Rapido launched 'Ownly' 05:19 - Atoms X LeapTech cohort 07:23 - Dream Sports launched Dream Street 07:51 - Agnikul Cosmos and Abyom SpaceTech update 08:15 - Razorpay x Sarvam partnership 08:31 - Funding News Rapido Disrupts Food Delivery Zomato and Swiggy have dramatically raised their platform fees — from ₹2 per order in 2023 to ₹14.9 and ₹17.58 respectively, representing increases of 645% and 790%. Combined with 20–40% restaurant commissions, a meal costing ₹150 offline ends up costing ₹250–300 online. Rapido is challenging this duopoly with a zero-commission model targeting the underserved market. While Zomato and Swiggy serve roughly 25–30 million users with average order values of ₹430–475, the real Indian market consists of 200–300 million people spending around ₹100 per meal. Rapido aims to bring 70,000 FSSAI-licensed Bengaluru restaurants — invisible to existing platforms — online for the first time. Its key advantage is logistics efficiency. With nearly 2 million riders already delivering for Zomato, Swiggy, and Zepto, Rapido leverages complementary demand curves: bike-taxi peaks during commute hours, food delivery peaks at mealtimes. This maximises driver utilisation and keeps costs low enough to make ₹100-order economics viable. Rapido has already onboarded 2,300 Bengaluru restaurants. Accel & Prosus Launch Atoms X Cohort Accel and Prosus announced six startups in their inaugural "Atoms X LeapTech" cohort, selected from 2,000 applications. The program backs "Day Zero" deep-tech startups — sometimes before a product or market exists — with matched capital from both investors. Selected startups include: Praan (filterless air purification), QOSMIC (satellite-to-Earth optical communications, 100x faster), Dognosis (AI-powered breath-based cancer detection), Ethereal Exploration Guild (reusable orbital rockets at $500/kg), Ferra (home-based resistance training for aging populations), and an unnamed brain-computer interface startup. Quick News Dream Sports (Dream11's parent) is launching Dream Street, a stock broking platform targeting tier-2 and tier-3 city retail investors with AI tools, currently in internal testing. Agnikul Cosmos successfully test-fired their fully 3D-printed Agnite engine, while Abyom SpaceTech completed a hot fire test validating reusability technologies. Razorpay partnered with AI startup Sarvam to enable voice-first commerce in Indian languages. Funding Highlights Indian startups raised $245 million this week, down from $375 million the prior week. Key rounds include: Euler Motors – $47M (Series E) for electric cargo vehicles Swish – $38M at a $139M valuation for hyper-fast food delivery in Bengaluru Pranos Fusion – $6.8M (pre-Series A) for compact nuclear fusion technology ELMED Life Sciences – $2.7M (Series A) for probiotics and nutraceuticals Canvaloop – $1.5M for converting agricultural waste into textile fibres