Anticipating sustained growth in its food delivery business, Swiggy’s Food Marketplace CEO Rohit Kapoor said the company has tapped only a small fraction of the Indian market and has no immediate plans for global expansion, citing the immense potential still available domestically.

Speaking to PTI on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting here, Kapoor said India continues to represent a large opportunity for growth and transformation across food delivery and other businesses.

“In food, particularly, we have been guiding the markets to an 18-20 per cent growth rate year-on-year, and I think trends are holding up to that even if you look at our last quarter numbers,” he said.

Highlighting low adoption levels, Kapoor said food delivery penetration in India remains far below that of Western markets and even some Southeast Asian countries, creating significant headroom for growth.

“I think the work cut out there is not just to grow food delivery, which roughly grows about two times the food market, but the entire food sector can grow a lot if the entire ecosystem and the government come together,” he said.

Asked about the size of the untapped market, Kapoor said only about 10–12 per cent of Indians have ever used food delivery services.

“And then we have the emerging consumer class that will soon join the market,” he said, adding that this means nearly 85–90 per cent of the market is yet to be tapped.

Kapoor also underlined the role of Swiggy’s delivery workforce, describing it as a key part of a new employment structure that should be viewed as flexible work rather than traditional gig employment.

“Gig sounds like a little bit of a fancy term, but the reality is it's flexible employment. And I truly see this as a third pillar,” he said.

Explaining the framework, Kapoor said the first pillar is formal employment, while the second is entrepreneurship, ranging from small shops to service businesses.

“I think this (delivery workforce) truly is the creation of a third leg to creating livelihoods. And this also flows across, so it's not like the people who are in the formal sector don't come here and don't go back,” he said.

Sharing scale, Kapoor said nearly 2.5 million people worked on the Swiggy platform at some point last year.

“And this is just our platform, and therefore, the scale of this is very large. And frankly, I think this is bound to grow,” he said, stressing that delivery partners choose this work voluntarily.

He welcomed the government’s social security code, calling it a step in the right direction, but urged policymakers to recognise the distinct nature of flexible employment.

“My only request to every stakeholder is treat it truly as different from formal employment. The moment you apply the same parameters, you will end up throttling something which is truly different,” he said.

“We're deeply interested in terms of making sure that this grows. And also, I think we have a job cut out for both improving this on every dimension possible over time, and also in explaining a lot more to people in terms of what the characteristics of this sector are, who is actually doing it,” he said.

Emphasising the diversity of the workforce, Kapoor added: “For example, it's not monolithic. There are people who want to do this long-term. There are people who want to do this just for the month. There are students who want to do this for extra income, and there are people who want to do it for a second income.

“There are a whole lot of people who come into the flexible employment category or flexible category,” Kapoor said.

Kapoor also spoke about Swiggy’s increasing use of artificial intelligence, saying the company is deploying Gen AI across operations to provide what he termed “democratized intelligence” to all stakeholders.

“For example, somebody calls customer service, and I have the ability through Gen AI to understand the quality of that discussion, and I can do something about it immediately. That's a power that Gen AI is unleashing,” he said.

“Most importantly, it's democratizing a lot of things. It is telling restaurant partners what happened yesterday, which dishes moved, which didn't. It helps our delivery partners understand where to go to get more maximum orders, and it has something for our leadership to understand what happened to the business yesterday,” he explained.

Alongside AI, Kapoor said robotics is being used in areas such as warehouses. However, he remained cautious about the near-term adoption of drone delivery in food services.

“There could be some pilots and experiments going on in different parts. But I won't say that it's mainstream in the business,” he said, noting that costs need to come down for wider adoption.

“And that's when usage goes up because there's always, you know, a competing resource which can do the same job. And if that curve doesn't change, then the adoption is slower,” he said.

Kapoor said robotics and drone technologies are still largely experimental and face challenges in last-mile delivery.

“Like, for example, even in an office complex or a residential society, it can go to one place or one position, but you need your food at your doorstep. Those are the questions which will need to be answered first,” he said.

“But I'm sure that as things evolve, models change, they transform, things happen,” he added.