Online restaurant guide and food ordering firm Zomato said on Wednesday that it has acquired drone start-up TechEagle Innovations, for an undisclosed sum. Lucknow-based TechEagle will help Zomato carve a path toward drone-based food delivery in India, creating a hub to hub delivery network powered by hybrid multi-rotor drones.
TechEagle was founded in 2015 by Vikram Singh Meena when he was a student at IIT-Kanpur. Since then, his young venture has been actively involved in the development of unmanned aerial vehicles, with prime focus on custom-made drones capable of carrying up to 5 kg payload.
“We are currently at the early stage of aerial innovations and are taking baby steps towards building a tomorrow wherein users can expect a drone to deliver the food they ordered online,” said Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO, Zomato.
Last mile delivery
Zomato’s first ‘delivery job’ currently is to design multi-rotor drones that can pick up a payload under 5 kg and set up drone delivery circuits for reducing the last mile delivery leg. “We believe that robots powering the last mile delivery is an inevitable part of the future and hence is going to be a significant area of investment for us,” said Mr. Goyal. Zomato said it currently delivers 22 million monthly orders and has a last mile delivery fleet of 1.5 lakh partners.
The government in August this year announced regulations for flying commercial drones in the country and said they will be effective from December 1, 2018. However, they don’t apply yet for delivery of food or for e-commerce.
