Coca-Cola to buy minority stake in Swiggy, Zomato rival, food-ordering platform Thrive

Beverage giant, Coca-Cola is all set to make its first investment in an Indian start-up. It is reportedly buying a minority stake in food ordering platform Thrive, that has direct competition with companies like Swiggy and Zomato. Thrive is a search and delivery platform that has partnerships with over 5,500 restaurants. 

According to The Economic Times that quoted an executive, the strategic investment will give a direct edge to Coca-Cola over its rivals, and push consumers to order only Coca-Cola beverages along with the food orders. They will also help consumers customise orders, buy package deals, meal combinations and loyalty codes. 

The deal will also help Coca-Cola drive consumer engagement as Thrive has a large base of mid-sized restaurant partners. 

Coca-Cola sells Coke and Thums Up aerated drinks along with Minute Maid juices, Kinley water, and Georgia coffee. 

Thrive was set up by three entrepreneurs, Dhruv Dewan, Karan Chechani and Krishi Fagwani in 2020 to enable consumers order food from a list of restaurant partners. It also allows restaurants the option to build their own sub-portals. Its previous avatar, Hashtag Loyalty, was set up in 2015 that focussed on offline food retail businesses, before it was launched as Thrive Now in the middle of the pandemic. 

Jubilant Foodworks that holds the master franchise of Domino’s in India, and payments company Razorpay are two among its list of investors. 

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