Daybreak - Nothing's changed in your Blinkit order. Everything's changing behind it

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

Over the past six months, Blinkit has been making a structural shift that most customers would never notice. For years, its fresh fruits and vegetables were sourced by Hyperpure, its own parent company Eternal’s business-to-business arm that also supplies restaurants. As Blinkit grew into Eternal’s primary revenue driver, Hyperpure grew with it. In FY25, more than 60% of Hyperpure’s revenue came from Blinkit.Then Blinkit decided to source its own inventory.Hyperpure’s revenue more than halved in two quarters. It is now separating its books and rebuilding around restaurants.What does the split mean?If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at [e-mail] with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

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The entire quick commerce economy in India runs on one big assumption that the supply will always be there. You open blanket, place an order, and trust that someone somewhere has it figured out how to make it possible. The system is steady, predictable and almost self-running. But over the last six months, one part of that system called Hyperpure has been thrown into an existential crisis. Hyperpure is the business to business arm of Eternal, the company that owns both Blinket and the food delivery platform Zomato. It supplies raw materials and kitchen essentials to restaurants, and it also supplied fresh fruits and vegetables to Blinket.

Naturally, for years, the two businesses were closely intertwined. In the financial year 2025, more than 60% of Hyperpure's revenue came from Blinket alone. So, as Blinket searched ahead, contributing nearly three-fourths to Eternals total revenue and surpassing the food delivery business in net order value by 26, Hyperpure was expanding alongside. Since 2018, its top line grew fivefold. And then, about six months ago, Blinket decided no more sources. from Hyperpure. And this came after the foreign direct investment rules were revised in India.

Eternal became an India-owned and controlled company with FDI cap at 49.5%. And this allowed Eternal to own its inventory directly. So it began sourcing on its own. By the December quarter of last year, it had largely stopped buying fruits and vegetables from Hyperpure. As a result, Hyperpure's revenue more than halved in power. two quarters. The two businesses that once operated almost as one are now separating their books. And like my colleague Noha Boberi said in her report, it takes a lot to come out looking like a

winner while letting your biggest customer walk away. Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Nick Das Sharma, and I don't chase the news cycle. Instead, every day of the week, my colleague Rachel Vargheese and I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your Today is Tuesday, the 17th of February. Hyperpure began eight years ago when Eternal, then known as Zemato, acquired WOTU technologies. Initially, the focus was supplying restaurants connected to the food delivery platform. But as Blinkets scaled, Hyperpure's rule expanded.

It became the primary fresh produce supplier to the Quick Commerce arm. And this mirrored Eternal's broader shift. The company evolved from a food delivery business experimented, with groceries into an e-grocer that also delivers food. So, Blinket became the growth engine for Eternal. But before becoming Blinket supplier, Hyperpure relied heavily on vendors. Category managers negotiated daily for better prices. Rates changed frequently and margins were tight.

Blinket's scale changed that dynamic. It pushed Hyperpure to tighten procurement and improve efficiency. And Hyperpure responded by building infrastructure. Today, it operates over 30 warehouses and 100 collection centers compared to just fewer than 10 warehouses three years ago. The goal was to reduce intermediaries. You see, produce typically moves from farmer to aggregator to Monday to vendors before reaching U&I. Each layel increases the cost. By sourcing more directly, Hyperpure aimed to protect its margins. Blinkets large volumes made those investments viable.

And then came the regulatory shift after the government revised the foreign direct investment rules. Eternal restructured in 2025, capping FDI at 49.5% to qualify as an Indian-owned and controlled company. And that enabled it to own its inventory directly. By the December quarter, Hyperpure's revenue fell sharply more than halving to 1,000-crow rupees over two quarters. Interestingly though, the efficiency improvements pushed by Blinket moving away helped HyperPure improve its beta margin leading to profitability. But profitability without scale presents a different kind of a challenge. Internally, the separation introduced complexity.

By the second quarter, the 50-member Hyperpure team that sourced for Blinket was disbanded. Members were moved into a new team called HighBlink, dedicated solely to sourcing for Blinket. These people remain on Hyperpure's payroll, but the inventory they procure now sits on Blinket's profit-in-law statement. A manager described the arrangement to my colleague Noha as kind of dicey. Employees sit on the same floor, but financial accountability is split. Under Hyperpure CEO Rishi Aurora, the plan is to separate operationally from Blinket and build a profitable restaurant-focused business. Meanwhile, Blinket's Albinder Dhingsa is set to become eternal CEO.

So now, Hyperpure has to redefine itself. More on this in the next segment. Before the separation, Blinket sourced between 150 to 200 metric tons of fresh produce per day from Hyperpure. That volume influenced everything. Procurement cycles, pricing leverage and warehouse utilization. and replacing it is the central challenge. Hyperpure is experimenting with contract farming for regular vegetables such as tomato and onions to stabilize the supply.

It is also expanding procurement of exotic vegetables like broccoli and bell pepper. Margins vary significantly. In-in vegetables offer 8 to 10%, while exotic vegetables offer 20 to 25%. The company aims to fix exotic vegetable prices for about a month to reduce the volatility. And beyond produce, Hyperpure is broadening its catalog. It now supplies brownies, croissauze and frozen kebabs to hotel restaurant cafe partners.

It is also opening a plant in Manesar Haryana to supply chutneys and sauces. It has also started setting up Super Express stores across cities, offering deliveries between 45 minutes and 4 hours depending on the location. Today, Hyperpure serves over 30,000 restaurants. draws across 14 cities and is targeting onboarding 50 new food processors. It also already processes products for Cheidas in Mumbai and is looking to add Boskin-Robbins. A manager believes that these brands can help offset the loss of blinkets volumes. The supply chain manager, though, is cautious.

Losing 150 to 200 metric tons per day represents a significant structural shift. It will take time to determine whether hyperpure can rebuild comparable scale. Margins have improved, volume growth remains uncertain, and Blinket is meanwhile growing at 120% annually. Hyperpure situation is simply not about managing costs. It is about whether a business built to serve a fast-growing sibling can survive after that sibling decides to grow alone.

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a song. small sample of a subscriber-only offerings and a full subscription offers daily, long-form feature stories, newsletters and a whole bunch of premium podcasts. To subscribe, head to the ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. Today's episode was hosted and produced by my colleague Snitha Sharma and edited by Rajiv Sien.