SIMPLY PUT: This billion dollar business model was a Netflix joke in 2020

A few weeks ago Ronnie Screwvala ⁠— the media baron who founded the edtech unicorn Upgrad ⁠— was astounded by the amount of money flowing into to fill up empty fridges of bachelors/maidens who can’t plan their purchases.

Now, blaming bachelors/maidens may be an unnecessary cliche, but they don’t care and you get the point. There are 20 million households in 2020, which bought items online and wanted them delivered by the time one could find the missing sock in a pair.


This is called quick commerce, the latest buzzword in Indian e-tail used to describe super fast deliveries within 15-20 minutes of the order being placed.

Earlier in 2020, Ronny Chieng, the Malaysian comic and a regular at The Daily Show, came up with this hilarious act describing the growing impatience of Americans. “Send it to me before I want it,” he declared before the audience roared in laughter.


Now, less than 24 months since, more than a billion dollars have been invested in Indian startups chasing quick commerce, this year alone. While you were laughing at Ronny Chieng’s joke.

A company like Grofers, which couldn’t make a success story out of delivering groceries in 90 minutes five years ago, has now made an ambitious bet on delivering the same within 10 minutes.


So much so that two teenage Stanford dropouts started a quick commerce seven months ago and it’s already worth half a billion dollars.

These are only the numbers we know so far. If one considers the 20 million homes that are already customers for such quick deliveries, the total investment would amount to $60 (₹4,500) per home.

Hope floats that more people in India get lazier and order things just when they want it and pay more for the stuff in delivery cost. Time for a chart!