Bangalore based food and grocery delivery company Swiggy is now ready to begin drone trials for grocery delivery and has decided to partner with 4 startups for the same. Out of more than 300 offers for the new age feat, Swiggy has sealed the deal with 4 – Garuda Aerospace, Skyeair Mobility Pvt. Ltd., ANRA + TechEagle Consortia, and Marut Dronetech.
“We have finalised four vendors in two tranches (stages) who have a mix of capabilities in drone hardware, potential to scale up, investment in innovation, research and development, and the overall ability to deliver the service.” said the official statement.
While tranche 1 will be implemented, starting 1st week of May, by Garuda Aerospace and Skyeair Mobility Pvt. Ltd. in Bengaluru and Delhi, respectively, tranche 2 will be implemented by ANRA + TechEagle Consortia and Marut Dronetech, on the basis of the learnings from tranche 1. All four vendors provide a mix of capabilities for drone hardware, potential to scale up, investment in innovation, research and development, and the overall ability to deliver the service.
According to Swiggy’s official statement, “Tranche 1 will start from the first week of May and tranche 2 will commence after we get results from the former. Our intent is to use valuable learnings from the first tranche and design a tranche 2 experiment to specifically address any shortcomings that are identified.”
The purpose of the pilot is to assess the feasibility of drones for the middle mile use case, specifically for Swiggy’s grocery delivery service Instamart. Drones will be utilised to restock supplies between seller-run dark stores as well as from a store to a common client location. A delivery partner will then pick up orders from the common location and bring them to the customer’s door.
About the companies
- Garuda Aerospace Private Limited Over the years this company has provided drone-based solutions, as well as related software and analytical tools, to boost productivity in businesses . They have designed drones for diverse applications and have clients in the government and private sectors all around India.
- Skyeair Mobility Pvt Ltd. has been extensively working in the Healthcare and E-commerce industries with government and private projects
- ANRA Technologies + TechEagle Consortia. Swiggy has worked with ANRA technologies last year for the BVLOS experiments. They are known globally as a drone service provider and for their airspace solutions.
- Marut Dronetech Pvt. Ltd. has been at the forefront of developing end-to-end, sustainable solutions for persisting social and ecological issues by integrating emerging technologies of drones, AI, Data Science, and IoT.
