• BigBasket to introduce 10-minute food delivery in India by March 2026.
• Only Tata-owned brands such as Starbucks and Qmin will be featured in the service.
• Company to go public in 18–24 months.

As India's quick-commerce market gains traction, Tata Group-owned BigBasket is set to introduce its 10-minute food delivery service across the country by the end of fiscal 2026. This represents the company's most aggressive foray yet beyond groceries, entering a high-speed segment becoming dominantly snack, coffee, and meal delivery dominated.

After a pilot success in Bengaluru last month, BigBasket aims to upscale the service to 40 dark stores by July. These dark stores small, hyperlocal warehouses are placed strategically in high-density urban clusters, allowing for quick last-mile delivery through two-wheelers. The model is similar to services such as Swiggy Snacc, Blinkit Bistro, and Zepto Café, but with a unique twist: BigBasket will restrict its offerings to Tata Group brands such as Starbucks and Qmin, eschewing third-party restaurant tie-ups altogether.

We are looking to meet existing demand while opening up new consumer segments," Vipul Parekh, BigBasket's Co-founder, said in a statement to Reuters.

Right now, just 5–10% of eligible customers taking part in the new offering add snack items to their grocery purchases. BigBasket expects this figure to increase as more people become familiar with the offering. The hope longer term is to make food delivery part of the overall online grocery ecosystem the brand has created since its launch in 2011.

In order to facilitate this growth, BigBasket will expand its dark store network from approximately 700 to 1,000 to 1,200 by the end of 2025. Such expansion is in favor of quicker delivery as well as further penetration in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities in which the platform already has a strong presence.

The timing of such a launch is deliberate, with competition growing more heated in India's fast-commerce space. As identified by Blume Ventures' Indus Valley Report, the sector has emerged as the quickest-growing Indian digital commerce vertical. Such hypergrowth has spurred drastic experimentation from instant grocery deliveries to spontaneous snack and food purchases both from incumbent players and new startups.

In contrast to most of its competitors that continue to burn money and pursue investor dollars, BigBasket is playing it steady. "One of the benefits we have as being a part of the Tata Group is availability of sufficient internal capital," Parekh said, putting to rest rumors of an imminent funding round.

Instead, BigBasket’s focus is on strengthening its infrastructure and preparing for a public listing. The company is eyeing an IPO within the next 18 to 24 months, aiming to evolve from an early innovator into a dominant force in the category. Previously backed by global investors such as Alibaba and CDC Group, BigBasket was acquired by Tata Digital in 2021.

Previously concentrated primarily on grocery delivery, the quick-commerce battlefield is now quickly moving toward food a transformation being driven by changing urban lifestyles and strategically placed logistics networks. With BigBasket in the fray, the spiciness in India's Q-commerce kitchen is only heating up.