Online food delivery platform Swiggy on Thursday, December 2 announced to invest $700 million (over Rs 5,250 crore) in its express grocery delivery service Instamart that delivers groceries in 15-30 minutes -- at a crucial time when its closest rival Zomato discontinued its in-house grocery delivery services.

Launched in Gurugram and Bengaluru in 2020, Swiggy Instamart said it is now serving customers across 18 cities, and doing over one million orders per week. In the last few months, Swiggy Instamart has onboarded more than one seller-run dark store every day. By January 2022, it will make deliveries in 15 minutes by having the network of dark stores very close to the majority of its customers, the company said.

"At our current growth trajectory, Instamart is set to reach an annualised GMV run rate of $1 billion in the next three quarters," said Sriharsha Majety, CEO, Swiggy. "With our food delivery business trending at a $3 billion annualised GMV run rate, and Instamart's super-charged growth, we're very excited about our convenience mission coming to life in a very big way," he added.

The platform is available in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kochi, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Noida, Pune and Vizag.

The platform offers an assortment of products across categories like fresh fruits and vegetables, daily bread and eggs, cooking essentials, beverages, instant food and munchies, personal and baby care, home and cleaning, specially curated to suit the demand requirements of each location.

Swiggy said it currently connects consumers to over 1,85,000 restaurant partners and stores in over 500 cities. The investment comes at a time when quick grocery delivery is becoming a hot segment in the country. Grofers, Swiggy and Dunzo, alongside Tata Group-owned Big Basket, have either launched or are planning to start full-scale operations in the quick commerce category.