Online food ordering platform Swiggy on Tuesday said it has rolled out a program that will see it offer benefits worth 63 crore to restaurants, especially small and medium eateries affected by the second wave of the pandemic.
    
The initiative is an extension of Swiggy’s Jumpstart package launched in June 2020 which helped over 50,000 restaurants partners deal with the impact of the first wave.

The Jumpstart 2.0 program will offer benefits such as enhanced visibility of restaurants for consumers up to 12 kilometers, bi-weekly payment to enable better cash flows particularly for small-medium restaurants apart from facilitation of business loans for restaurant partners.

“Swiggy’s restaurant partners will also have access to additional funds through growth aids for reinvestment in ads and promotional offers to recover their lost business post covid. They can also choose business booster packs like customized discounts; visibility plans for ads to unlock greater sales. Training on covid safe behavior, maintaining hygiene and sanitization protocols will be made available to all restaurateurs," the company said in a statement.

Swiggy said the pandemic has pushed a third of restaurant partners listed on the online platform to permanently shut down, while several are yet to recover fully.

Since February 2021, a similar number of new restaurants have adopted online deliveries and joined the Swiggy platform. The platform is onboarding an average of 8,000 new restaurants every month, its highest ever monthly additions, it said.

The program, with a special focus on small and medium restaurants, has seen over 40,000 restaurants use it in some way or the other.

Just as businesses were recovering, the second wave dealt another blow with lockdowns and on-ground restrictions affecting dine-ins, said Paul Varghese, vice-president, supply, Swiggy.

"This put tremendous pressure amongst restaurateurs to keep their business afloat and pay rents and salaries. Cognizant of their concerns, Jumpstart 2.0 has been specifically designed to support our restaurant partners in their revival stories. Partners opting for growth aids, advertising packages and offers are witnessing a 10-15% jump in orders already," he said.