Coca-Cola acquires 15% stake in food-tech platform Thrive

Coca-Cola India has acquired a 15% stake in Hashtag Loyalty which operates Thrive - a food-tech company that offers an online ordering platform for restaurants. Hashtag has raised the capital at a pre-money valuation of INR 104.68 crore. In 2021, Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd (JFL) which operates pizza chain Domino's in India picked up a 35% stake in Hashtag Loyalty. The latest deal with Coca Cola reduces JFL's stake in Hashtag to 29.75%. Thrive provides restaurants with a modern ordering solution for restaurants operating almost like an alternative to the large aggregators Zomato and Swiggy. It helps build microsites for individual restaurants, multi-outlets, and even larger F&B corporations, from which customers can place their orders directly, instead of opting for an aggregator platform. Thrive claims that currently, over 14,000 restaurants across 80 cities use its platform. The commission charged to restaurants per order by Thrive is as low as 3%, in comparison to the 25-30% charged by large food delivery aggregators.