Mint Explainer | Can this startup make 10-minute delivery finally work?

Mint unpacksZomato has made three attempts at ultra-fast food delivery: Instant, Everyday, and Quick. Each was built on a different model but ended for the same reason: the economics never worked.

Instant’s pre-prepped 10-minute menu shut down within months, Everyday’s home-chef service faded out, and Quick’s 15-minute experiment was wound down after just four months.Zomato, in its most recent quick experiment, has since pivoted to Bistro, a more controlled, high-frequency menu run through dedicated kitchens. Zepto consolidated its Zepto Café offering last year, and in February, Swiggy shut Snacc, citing unsustainable costs.Swish recently raised about $38 million, nearly doubling its valuation, raising questions about what it’s doing differently and whether 10-minute food delivery can finally crack unit economics.

It’s a complex model. Incumbents like Swiggy, Zomato and even Zepto have scaled down their 10-minute food and snack delivery bets because the underlying economics never settled into a predictable, profitable pattern.The model depends on dense order volumes, hyper-local assortment, low rider idle time and high repeat behaviour, conditions that proved inconsistent outside a few micro-pockets.

Delivery costs remained high, while average order values stayed low, creating a persistent gap between contribution margin and the cost of running dark stores or maintaining ultra-fast fleets.Over time, the marketplace companies seem to have shifted focus to higher-certainty bets, such as core food delivery, or 10-minute grocery, where frequency, margins, and operational leverage are more reliable.Concerns around ultra-fast delivery go beyond business viability. In January, the Indian government urged quick-commerce