BigBasket pilots 10-minute food delivery with Starbucks, Qmin in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: BigBasket has rolled out a 10-minute food delivery service in select parts of Bengaluru, marking its official entry into the fast-growing instant food delivery space. The launch includes curated menus featuring beverages and meal bowls sourced from Tata Group's own food and hospitality ventures, including Starbucks and Qmin.The service currently offers coffee, tea, juices, light snacks, and desserts. Starbucks in India operates through a joint venture between Tata Consumer Products and Starbucks Corporation, while Qmin is a food delivery platform backed by Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), a Tata enterprise. Qmin, which was launched in 2020, allows users to order food from Taj and other IHCL brands, and also operates Qmin Cafes across several cities, with 11 locations in Bengaluru alone.The move comes months after BigBasket CEO Hari Menon said the company would expand into food delivery in 2025, alongside scaling up assortment in tier-1 cities and launching pharma deliveries in partnership with Tata 1mg. Menon outlined these plans in a December 2024 post on X, suggesting that BigBasket's grocery-led model would increasingly integrate adjacent delivery verticals.BigBasket's foray into rapid food delivery coincides with heightened competition in the space from both vertical quick commerce players and food-tech incumbents. Swiggy is currently scaling Snacc, its in-house convenience food service, and also runs 10-minute deliveries via a limited-menu restaurant model branded as Bolt. Zomato, too, has doubled down on Bistro, its ready-to-eat delivery business, which operates over 100 cloud kitchens across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. Meanwhile, Zepto paused its Zepto Cafe operations in several cities including Delhi, Agra, and Chandigarh earlier this month, affecting over 40 stores. The company cited backend supply chain constraints for the halt, though the segment remains active in core metro clusters.