Zomato has announced that it has expanded its online ordering and food delivery services to Machilipatnam, Nandyal, Bhimavaram, Ongole, Srikakulam and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh, Kottayam and Kollam in Kerala and Ambur in Tamil Nadu as part of its expansion to 17 new cities, bringing the total to 213 cities in India. It currently lists over one lakh restaurants and has a last mile delivery fleet of 1.8 lakh partners.

Commenting on the new development, Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO, Zomato, said, “Emerging cities are a major growth avenue for us and we expect them to constitute more than 50% of our total order volume by the end of the year. As we grow, we are also trying to create value for everyone in the ecosystem. With 1.8 lakh delivery partners, we are creating jobs and skill-building opportunities for many in India. We are developing Zomato Kitchen hubs in smaller cities in India to drive growth for our restaurant partners. Through our partnership with Feeding India, we have started routing excess food from restaurants to undernourished segments of our society.”

“The support we have garnered from both users and restaurants has exceeded our expectations. We are focused on serving every last customer and have been adding almost one city to our portfolio every day since December 2018. Our next target is to deliver food across 500 cities in India by the end of September 2019,” added Mohit Gupta, CEO - Food Delivery, Zomato.

Zomato said in a statement that it has seen 2X growth in the food-delivery restaurant partners and 2.5X growth in last mile delivery fleet since October 2018 and claims to be currently delivering 38 million orders on a monthly basis

Some of the other cities where it launched its services include Bulandshahr and Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Solan in Himachal Pradesh, Palwal and Rewari in Haryana, Khanna and Gurdaspur in Punjab and Deoghar in Jharkhand.