This Year-Opener under BRIEF26 has been authored by Mandar Lande, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Waayu, exclusively for Mediabrief.com. Insights and inspiration for tomorrow.
When we think back on 2025, we see it as a turning point for Waayu, for the Indian food delivery industry, and for how technology-driven platforms will actually assist small businesses. The events of 2025 validate an early principle we established as a business in 2022—that food delivery is a scalable model that doesn’t need to rely on exploitation. With this philosophy, we continued to grow in 2025 and look forward to the same in 2026.
Reflecting on 2025: A Year of Validation and Clarity
The partnership with ONDC for the Maha Kumbh 2025 Maha Prasad order and delivery service was one of our biggest highlights of 2025. This moment was more than just an operational milestone for us. It was a demonstration of the capability of a zero-commission, transparent platform to connect millions of people with Maha Kumbh 2025, an event that is steeped in spirituality and carries with it the complexity and magnitude of logistics.
Waayu achieved significant milestones over the course of the year, crossing the 1 million customer mark, partnering with more than 1,00,000 restaurants. However, the real takeaway from 2025 is the fundamental business principles of the industry: fairness, transparency and long-term sustainability.
The most significant change over the course of the year was that restaurants are becoming more vocal about their platform dependence. The old mantra of “commissions are the price of growing” is starting to lose its relevance. Many restaurant partners realised that high commission fees, artificially inflated searchability and ambiguous policies erode margins and brand equity. On the other hand, platforms that focus on enabling restaurants to be successful, as opposed to taking a piece of their profits, are starting to earn the trust of restaurant partners.
Another key learning from 2025 was that consumers view value at its highest level. In addition to discounts, consumers also want to feel as though they are being charged a fair price for their goods and services. When consumers view the price they pay for their order as being fair and connected to supporting local restaurants, they naturally become loyal repeat customers.
Waayu’s ecosystem today extends well beyond delivery in multiple ways, including Eazy Menu for seamless QR ordering to save on waiter and labour cost, direct customer engagement through WhatsApp Ordering, Waayu POS and OrderPad for unified inventory, kitchen, and order management, and Waayu Food Delivery App that price fairly and provide transparency, while Mandi, our zero-commission supplier marketplace for restaurants, which gives back to community by enabling transparent sourcing and equitable access to ingredients and services.
Each of these products and services is designed to help operators run their restaurants in an environmentally sustainable and independent manner. This way, we ensure that we stay instrumental to our customers as well as the restaurants, making ourselves a multi-layered channel serving the whole ecosystem.
Looking Ahead to 2026: Focus, Priorities, and Predictions
As we move into 2026, Waayu’s priorities are sharply defined.
- Deep Ecosystem Integration: The initial element of our strategy is the integration of deeper ecosystem-level integration. We will also create a more robust hyperlocal discovery engine for iconic local restaurants, with continued emphasis on expanding markets beyond the traditional metro areas.
- Advanced technology: The second element of our strategy is the development of technology for humans, rather than for growth. To this end, by 2026, we intend to heavily invest in end-to-end technology integration, including smarter logistics; real-time tracking with improved accuracy; user interfaces; an improved user experience; and data analytics that support restaurants in identifying demand trends while still providing options for restaurant operators.
- Growth with Trust: The third element of our strategy will be to leverage trust as a key driver of our growth strategy. Trust will be critical to sustaining growth in the food tech industry. Therefore, the importance of hygiene, safety, authentic reviews, and transparency in our rankings will always remain paramount.
At the same time, we will be intentional in scaling down our focus on vanity metrics. In 2026, our focus will not be on burn-heavy expansion, unsustainable incentives, or short-term acquisition tactics, but on creating resilient growth rather than unreliably inflated numbers.
Trends That Will Matter Most
The food delivery ecosystem by 2026 will be driven by three major trends across multiple stakeholders in this market:
- Shift in Mainstream model: Industry is likely to move towards Zero Commission and Low Commission Models. Restaurants will continue opting for the most affordable options when selecting their delivery partner.
- Public Digital Infrastructure: Public digital infrastructure will play a critical role in breaking monopolised delivery models and promoting competitive advantages among competitors.
- Increasing Consumer Awareness: There will also be an increase in consumer awareness to help identify platforms that align with transparency, support local businesses and ethical pricing models.
From our perspective, we believe that we want to think big while remaining grounded. We want to continue building for the restaurant owners working 14 hours a day, delivery partners delivering in their cities, and customers seeking reliable experiences.
The message to Young Professionals entering the Ecosystem is straightforward – don’t chase the hype blindly! Ask Questions about Business Models, understand the industry, and Balance Competitive Spirit with Ethics, in addition to Ambition!
Waayu is more than a food delivery app. We consider ourselves a catalyst for a more equitable ecosystem that supports local food businesses, provides fair pricing to customers, and promotes technology as a facilitator.
