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Zomato collaborates with Startup India; announced plastic free orders
Mumbai : Zomato, India’s food ordering and delivery platform announced a ‘Plastic-Free Orders Packathon’ in collaboration with Startup India to encourage innovation in sustainable packaging for food delivery orders. The Packathon is a competition for startups to showcase food delivery and sustainable packaging options for restaurants catering to online food orders.
Zomato chief sustainability officer Anjalli Ravi Kumar, said, “ Zomato is deeply committed to reducing the environmental impact of food deliveries. In September 2023, we began to recognise restaurants that have adopted sustainable packaging materials for food deliveries via a ‘Plastic-Free Orders’ banner.
The program is live in 8 cities and 3.6 million orders have been recognised as plastic-free till 31 December 2023. The program surfaced the fact that many national restaurant chains have adopted paper-based or bagasse-based packaging. Standalone, mid-tier and budget restaurants, especially those outside metro cities, are struggling with the availability of affordable and functional alternatives to plastic packaging for their deliveries. The problem is particularly acute for restaurants specializing in gravy-based cuisines with multiple condiments and accompaniments. We believe focused innovations hold the answer to this problem and the Packathon is a way to surface and recognise Indian innovators.”
Startup India, vice president Aastha Grover, said, “The launch of Zomato Plastic-Free Packathon is a testament to our shared commitment helping Indian businesses and citizens transition to sustainable practices. Given the burgeoning issue of plastic pollution, this initiative is a clarion call to all Indian startups to innovate and devise sustainable packaging solutions for food delivery that can significantly reduce plastic usage. This challenge presents a unique opportunity for Indian startups to showcase their ingenuity and contribute to a new era of sustainable consumption. As part of Startup India’s mission, we are excited to facilitate and support innovative solutions that will preserve our planet for future generations.”
Open to all DPIIT-recognised start-ups, the deadline for application submission to the Packathon is 29 February. The top three winners will receive prices worth 10 Lakhs, 5 lakhs and 3 lakhs respectively, in addition to receiving the opportunity to showcase their solution to Zomato’s restaurant partners.
Zomato also announced its comprehensive 2030 sustainability goals, including, continuing to facilitate 100 per cent plastic neutral food delivery orders through voluntary recycling, and also facilitating delivery of 100 million plastic-free food orders by 2025. Over the years, Zomato has undertaken various initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of food deliveries, through its 3Rs approach of ‘reduce, recycle and reward’.
In 2021, the company made ‘do not send cutlery’ the default option on its food ordering and delivery app, giving customers the option to ask for cutlery, only if they needed it. Over the past two years, this simple initiative has cut cutlery waste by 1,000 MT, or 1 million kilos. In FY 23, Zomato recycled 20,000 MT of plastic waste – more than 2X the weight of plastic used by restaurant partners to package orders received through Zomato.
In 2023, the company launched a recognition programme for restaurant partners who make the switch to plastic-free alternatives for their Zomato deliveries.
Link to the Packathon:
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UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
