Sowmya Ramasubramanian ( )
The Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association has launched a new food delivery app ‘Waayu’ aimed at offering restaurants a zero-commission platform. The app will enable hotels, restaurants, and catering (HORECA) businesses to log orders for food delivery without paying a commission.
It will help restaurants price their menu at more competitive rates, the industry body said in a statement on Monday. More than a thousand brands have already joined the platform, including Mahesh Lunch Home, Bhagat Tarachand, Banana Leaf, Shiv Sagar, Guru Kripa, Kirti Mahal, and Persian Darbar.
Actor and investor Suniel Shetty has been onboarded as the brand ambassador.
Waayu will enable restaurants to receive their dues instantly and directly into their own bank account, with , Google Pay, UPI, net banking, debit cards, credit cards, or cash on delivery. Restaurants can deliver via multiple available options—Grab, —or use their own delivery staff.
The Waayu app will also offer a SaaS platform that will enable restaurants to manage orders by automating the order workflow, the industry body said. Incorporated under the name Destek Horeca, the app is founded by Anirudha Kotgire and Mandar Lande.
Actor and investor Suniel Shetty with Waayu app founders Anirudha and Mandar at its launch in Mumbai
“We are working with a plan of onboarding over 10,000 restaurants in the next three months from Mumbai, Pune, and the suburbs. Our next step is to take WAAYU in both metro and non-metro cities across India. We aim to disrupt the online and dine-in food industry with deep technology to provide quality food from popular restaurants at affordable rates. Zero commission model has always been our unique selling proposition and we would continue to do so,” Lande said.
The move comes as restaurants across cities are expressing dissent with food delivery firms and Swiggy owing to high commissions and delayed deliveries. Recently, several Mumbai-based eateries complained that the delivery radius for online orders was being reduced by Zomato, possibly due to a delivery worker shortage.
YourStory reported in March that, in addition to increasing commissions on food-delivery orders, Zomato is pushing restaurants to spend more, including by advertising on the platform and bearing the cost of cancellations.