Eternal-owned Blinkit widened its lead over Swiggy Instamart during the January-March quarter across scale, profitability and network expansion, sharpening investor debate over whether Swiggy’s slower, margin-led approach risks ceding strategic ground in the fast-growing quick commerce market.

The divergence between the two companies became more pronounced through FY26. Blinkit reported adjusted Ebitda profit of Rs 370 crore in the January-March quarter on net order value (NOV) of Rs 14,386 crore, compared with a loss of Rs 178 crore a year earlier.

Swiggy Instamart, meanwhile, posted an adjusted Ebitda loss of Rs 858 crore on NOV of Rs 5,674 crore. While Instamart’s contribution margin improved to -1.8% from -2.5% a year earlier, its adjusted Ebitda losses have remained in the Rs 840-910 crore range over the past four quarters.

Visible gap across operating metrics

The gap was visible across operating metrics as well. Blinkit processed 274 million orders during the quarter against Instamart’s 113 million, while monthly transacting users stood at 27.2 million and 13.3 million, respectively. Blinkit ended FY26 with 2,243 dark stores after adding 942 stores during the year. Instamart added 122 stores and closed the year with 1,143 stores. In the March quarter alone, Blinkit added 216 stores while Instamart added just seven.

Brokerages including Nomura, ICICI Securities and JM Financial said Blinkit’s widening scale advantage and improving profitability reinforced its leadership position in quick commerce, even as Swiggy showed improving execution metrics. Analysts tracking the sector said the market was increasingly rewarding network density, order frequency and rapid dark-store expansion over near-term margin discipline.

Swiggy, however, defended its slower expansion as a deliberate strategy focused on quality growth, higher basket sizes and better utilisation of existing infrastructure rather than aggressive low-value customer acquisition.

On the company’s earnings call, Swiggy Managing Director Sriharsha Majety said the company was not attempting to compete purely on low-value, high-frequency orders. Management said Instamart’s existing network was operating at roughly 40% utilisation and could absorb significantly higher throughput without major incremental capex. Swiggy has also been focusing on larger-format dark stores to deepen assortment and support future demand growth.

The company’s strategy became more visible during FY26 as rivals including Blinkit, Zepto, Amazon Now and Flipkart Minutes pushed aggressive no-fee campaigns and lower ordering thresholds to drive frequency. Swiggy initially responded with its own no-fee delivery campaign at higher minimum order values but discontinued it in January as part of efforts to improve unit economics.

The shift has improved basket economics. Instamart’s net average order value rose from Rs 400 in Q4FY25 to Rs 490 in Q4FY26, while gross AOV increased to around Rs 700 from about Rs 527 a year earlier. Swiggy said non-grocery categories could eventually account for 30-40% of Instamart’s business mix.

Still, analysts said the key question for FY27 would be whether Swiggy’s slower, economics-led model can translate into operating leverage quickly enough while rivals continue to expand aggressively and consolidate market share advantages.