Open to all startups registered on the Startup India portal, the deadline for application submission for the Packathon is 10th March 2025. This year, there will be one winner for each of the two categories — solutions in the prototype stage, and solutions in the ready-to-scale stage. The winner in the prototype category will win INR ~10 lakhs, and the winner in the ready-to-scale category will win INR ~15 lakhs. Shortlisted startups will be given the opportunity to showcase their innovations to interested restaurant partners. Innovators may complete the application form and submit their solutions on the Startup India website.
Sanjiv, Joint Secretary, Startup India, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India, said, “Startup India, DPIIT is committed to an innovative and sustainable future. We recognize the Zomato Plastic-Free Future Packathon as a vital initiative that will deliver tangible results in reducing plastic waste from food delivery. By partnering with industry and empowering startups, we hope to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.”
Speaking on the initiative, Anjalli Ravi Kumar, Chief Sustainability Officer, Zomato, said, “Zomato is committed to identifying and promoting sustainable alternatives to plastic packaging for restaurants to package their deliveries. We have been focused on finding such solutions through our Hyperpure business, which offers sustainable packaging solutions to restaurant partners, and through initiatives such as Zomato’s Plastic-Free Future Program, which has recognized over 200 restaurant brands, with 7,500+ restaurants in 400+ cities listed on the Zomato app making active efforts to use less plastic packaging. The Packathon is a competition designed to help innovators understand the needs of restaurants and encourage them to solve for the food delivery use-case — especially the challenge of transporting hot beverages and gravy items — key features of Indian cuisine. At Packathon 2024, our restaurant partners were introduced to innovative solutions like plant-based gums for barrier coatings and alternatives to PET for bottles, etc. We’re confident this year’s innovations will be even more exciting.”
In 2021, Zomato made ‘Do not send cutlery’ the default option on its food ordering and delivery app, allowing customers to opt-in only if needed. This has prevented nearly 1933 MT of cutlery waste so far. The firm also voluntarily recycles plastic waste equal to the amount restaurants use for packing food delivery orders and has recycled 43,000 MT of plastic waste since FY23 – about 1.5x the volume of plastic waste generated by orders delivered through Zomato.
