Eternal Expands Food Services with New Venture ‘Blinkit Foods’
In a decisive step that highlights its expanding ambitions in the rapidly changing quick commerce and food delivery industry, Eternal Limited has announced setting up a new wholly owned subsidiary called Blinkit Foods. The newly incorporated company will be involved in the food services business segment, including activities like food preparation, innovation, procurement, sale, and on-demand delivery to customers, as per a regulatory filing. Though the firm did not reveal elaborate operational strategies or launch dates, the notice marks a major push in Eternal’s food business under its quick-commerce segment Blinkit.
The subsidiary Blinkit Foods is incorporated with a proposed authorised share capital of ₹1 crore and a paid-up share capital of ₹10 lakh, marking a conservative but strategic investment in the venture at its nascent stage. Eternal Limited confirmed that the new company, once officially incorporated, will be a fully owned subsidiary and a related party under existing regulatory definitions. Significantly, Eternal is a professionally managed entity with no promoters or promoter group, placing it in a unique position among India’s large-scale commerce and food enabled businesses.
The timing of Blinkit Foods’ creation is significant. Eternal has been quietly scaling its 10-minute food delivery experiment, Bistro, under Blinkit in select high-density urban markets. According to the company’s Q1 FY26 shareholder update, Bistro has shown early promise, with incremental demand that complements rather than cannibalises the business of Zomato, which Eternal also owns. Bistro kitchens have reportedly been optimized to serve specific hyperlocal needs — offering a focused menu of affordable, high-quality, snack-style meals aimed at users seeking both speed and convenience.
This move also comes after Zomato’s own 15-minute delivery business, Quick, was recently closed down because of operational inefficiencies and margin constraints. Quick, though innovative, was not managing to achieve a sustainable equilibrium between speed, scale, and customer satisfaction across several geographies. The phasing out of Quick seems to have paved the way for a more efficient and scalable paradigm under Blinkit, where cloud kitchens are combined with micro-fulfillment centers to achieve exact, high-frequency order fulfillment.
Eternal’s formal incorporation indicates that the company is going from experimental pilots to developing a dedicated infrastructure for ultra-fast food delivery, backed by tech-enabled kitchen networks, proprietary menu R&D, and optimized logistics. The firm is likely to leverage Blinkit’s strong dark store network and delivery optimization infrastructure to support the 10-minute delivery model for freshly prepared food — an offer that can upset not only food delivery platforms but also convenience food retail.
The strategic intent appears to be clear: position Blinkit Foods as a full-stack player that controls the entire food delivery value chain, from sourcing and cooking to logistics and last-mile fulfillment. This would reduce dependency on third-party restaurants and improve margins, all while giving Eternal greater control over quality, pricing, and customer experience.
Industry experts view the move as Eternal’s attempt to differentiate Blinkit from rivals like Swiggy Instamart and Zepto, both of which are currently focused primarily on grocery and daily essentials. However, the competitive landscape is already heating up. Swiggy, which runs Instamart, has reportedly been testing Swiggy Bolt, its own fast food delivery vertical, and is expected to expand the service in key Indian metros soon. Zepto, another major player in the quick commerce space, has hinted at ambitions to enter the prepared food segment as well, although details remain scarce.
The overall quick commerce space in India is transforming at a breathtaking pace. What was once confined to the delivery of staples like food, beverages, and household items is now shifting toward curated hot food solutions, meals prepared by chefs, and high-end meal kits, aimed at responding to changing needs of busy city consumers. As per RedSeer Consulting, India’s 10-minute food delivery space can become a $1.5 billion category in 2027 with growth fueled by rising urbanization, digital penetration, and evolving food consumption patterns.
For Eternal, Blinkit Foods can be the long-term strategic anchor to unlock this opportunity. Through creating a portfolio of owned food brands and delivery-only kitchens under the Blinkit brand, the company can not only drive improved unit economics but also own customer data and food innovation in ways that traditional aggregators can’t.
As yet uncertain is how aggressively Eternal will expand Blinkit Foods from city to city, but its careful and data-led strategy — as evidenced in the gradual rollout of Bistro — indicates that execution will be supported by infrastructure preparedness as much as by customer behavior patterns.
With Blinkit Foods, Eternal seems to be setting the stage for the next leg of India’s food tech growth — one of merging speed, quality, and vertical integration to offer an upgraded yet affordable meal experience at home.
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