Brands
District by Zomato launches Splitpay to take the pain out of splitting the bill
The new feature lets every diner settle their exact share on the spot, with cashback thrown in — and a campaign film starring Boman Irani and Anupam Kher to make the point
GURUGRAM: Anyone who has ever sat at a restaurant table watching one friend heroically grab the bill while everyone else fumbles unconvincingly for their wallets will understand exactly what District by Zomato is trying to fix.
The going-out platform has launched Splitpay, a feature built directly into the District app that allows every diner at the table to settle their individual share on the spot, without the familiar post-meal theatre of one person paying and everyone else promising to transfer it later. No mental arithmetic, no screenshots of the bill sent to the group chat, no chasing payments the next day.
The mechanics are straightforward. A user enters the bill amount, selects the number of people, and the group splits it equally or customises their shares and pays the restaurant directly through the app in a few taps. No payment details change hands between diners. Each person also earns cashback on their individual share, meaning the reward is no longer reserved for whoever reaches the bill first.
Rahul Ganjoo, chief executive of District by Zomato, was blunt about what prompted the feature. “A meal out belongs to the whole table, but it has always ended with the least social moment: one person paying and everyone else doing maths,” he said. “We built Splitpay to fix it. It is one more step in the same direction we have been moving all along: taking the effort out of every stage of going out, so the only thing people take home is the experience itself.”
To mark the launch, District has released a campaign film starring Boman Irani and Anupam Kher as two friends locked in an escalating battle over who picks up the bill, culminating in Kher stuffing the bill into his mouth to prevent his friend from paying. The film mines a deeply relatable cultural ritual for broad comedy before landing on the Splitpay solution as the rather more civilised alternative.
The feature is live now on the District app, which brings together dining, concerts, movies, events, sports and shopping under one platform.
The bill fight is officially over. Anupam Kher’s dentist, presumably, is delighted.
