UberEATS launches operations in Mumbai with 200 restaurants onboard

UberEATS, the ride-booking app Uber India's on-demand food delivery app has launched its operations in Mumbai on Tuesday with 200 restaurants on board, Uber India said in a statement.

Uber India also appointed Bhavik Rathod, formerly general manager, South & West, Uber rides business as the head of UberEATS in India. He will be responsible for the business' expansion in the country. 

UberEATS will be a separate app available on the Google Play store and the Apple App Store, which will let customers order food from its partner restaurants. UberEats will also be a feature available on the main Uber app, which will let customers order food. Customers can also go to ubereats.com to order. While there is no minimum order size, UberEATS will charge a delivery fee of Rs 15. 

Courtesy: Blog by UberEATS Head Bhavik Rathod

The on-demand food service went live at 12 noon on Tuesday and, "You will be able to order seven days a week, round the clock, as long as the restaurants are operational, through the app," Rathod said.

Commenting on the launch, he added, "the introduction of UberEATS in India, with Mumbai as the first city to go live with this food delivery service, is a major step in our global expansion strategy and showcases our commitment to the market."

UberEATS was first launched in Los Angeles in 2014 on a pilot basis, the statement said, and later as a separate app in Toronto in December 2015. The service is now available in 26 countries and 78 cities around the globe, including India. 

The new service has been launched with the aim to make "food delivery -- from pizza to smoothies -- through the UberEATS as convenient and reliable as getting an Uber ride," Kartik Murthy, Product Manager, UberEATS Internationalisation and Growth, said. 

Talking about the new product offered by Uber India, Murthy said, "We have been building the technology to make food delivery at the push of a button easy whereever you are -- whether it is at home or the park, in Mumbai or San Francisco. that is why we are working specifically to make the challenges in India opportunities for developing a better product for consumers, restaurants, and delivery partners." 

About the tech of the app, for consumers, he said, it will use machine learning to give restaurant recommendations, and popular payment options are being added to make transactions easy. Currently, UberEATS app has launched with Paytm as its payment partner. 

Restaurants get the Restaurant Manager feature to share actionable data and analytics to help grow their businesses. And for delivery partners, we have built the ability for them to complete trips even when offline in low connectivity areas, Murthy said. 

The UberEATS app will let customers schedule meals for delivery as per their convenient time - letting them order a week in advance or up to an hour before the scheduled delivery. 

The company is also striving to add untraditional locations like hospitals and parks as delivery location options. 

So far, UberEATS has partnered with 200 restaurant partners, including local players like The Bohri Kitchen, Nom Nom, the Bombay Canteen, The Good Wife, Fresh Menu, Le 15, Coffee Di Bella, Krispy Kreme, Chillies, and more. 

The Founder of The Bohri Kitchen, Munaf Kapadia, said, "Over the last 12 months we have struggled with trying to put in place a scalable delivery business due to various operational challenges -- we are confident that this partnership with UberEATS will give TBK the scale and efficiency we need to come a step closer towards our business potential."

In the country, UberEATS will go up against the on-demand food delivery majors like Zomato and Swiggy.