Cab hailing major Uber’s on-demand food delivery service Uber Eats is set to launch in Jaipur and Kochi later this month. Since its launch in May 2017, Uber Eats has expanded to one city every month and with the addition of Jaipur and Kochi, the service will be present across 10 cities in India.
Uber Eats will launch with over 500 restaurants across both the cities. It is currently in the process building a network of delivery executives that are currently being trained and onboarded as the service gears up to launch in both cities in the coming weeks.
“It has truly been an exciting journey for Uber Eats in India. We’re all set to hit a milestone of 10 cities in 10 months. Jaipur and Kochi are known for their rich culinary delights and we are excited to make food ordering quick, easy and reliable here. We see immense potential in the adoption of our platform here,” Bhavik Rathod, Head of Uber Eats India said in a statement.
Uber launched Uber Eats in India in May 2017 starting with Mumbai as its first city. Since then the service has expanded to Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune. It currently has a restaurant network of over 7000 restaurants across all the cities.
The Uber Eats app is a separate app, independent of the Uber app that people use to request a ride.
Globally, Uber Eats started in 2014 as a small delivery pilot in Los Angeles and launched as a separate application in Toronto in December 2015. Since then, it has expanded across the globe and is now available in over 30 countries 200+ cities.
In India, it faces stiff competition in the fast-growing foodtech industry from players such as Swiggy, Zomato and FoodPanda. These players are backed by deep-pocketed investors such as Naspers, SoftBank and Alibaba. FoodPanda was recently acquired by Uber’s Indian rival Ola.