Why Swiggy Pulled Ahead of Zomato: Deepinder Goyal Explains

Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal has candidly explained how rival Swiggy managed to pull ahead in India’s food delivery race, admitting that his company was slow to embrace delivery logistics while customer preferences rapidly changed.
Speaking on a recent podcast with Raj Shamani, Goyal said Swiggy’s biggest advantage was that it went all-in on food delivery at a time when Zomato was still primarily a restaurant discovery platform. Founded in 2008, Zomato initially focused on listings and reviews, while Swiggy, launched in 2014, bet aggressively on end-to-end delivery backed by heavy discounts and logistics investments.
“I think food delivery logistics was the key,” Goyal said. “They actually started it. For a couple of years, I resisted it because I believed this model could never make money.”
He explained that, at the time, Swiggy’s unit economics appeared unsustainable. “It was very hard to justify that this would make money. I’m sure even Swiggy’s founder didn’t know if it would,” he said. However, what changed the equation was strong customer loyalty.
“The customer love was real,” Goyal noted. “When your own friends tell you, ‘I’m not ordering from Zomato anymore, I’ll use Swiggy,’ you know you have a serious problem. That’s when we had to figure things out.”
According to Goyal, Swiggy’s high customer retention ultimately forced Zomato to double down on delivery, rethink its strategy, and compete more aggressively to recover lost ground.
Shark Tank controversy
Goyal also addressed reports surrounding his exit from Shark Tank India. He revealed that after appearing as a judge for one season, he was initially in talks to return for the next. However, those discussions abruptly ended.
“Everything was fine, and then suddenly they backed out,” he said, adding that he was later told Swiggy — which sponsored the show — had raised objections to his presence. “They told us they couldn’t have me.”
The episode, Goyal suggested, reflected how intense the rivalry between India’s two biggest food delivery platforms has become — both on and off the business battlefield.