Coca-Cola set to buy minority stake in Thrive

This will be Coca-Cola’s first investment in a startup in India, executives directly aware of the development said. But they couldn’t put a figure on the size of the deal.

“The strategic investment will give Coca-Cola a distinct edge over rivals, as it will push consumers to order only Coca-Cola’s beverages along with the food orders they place on the Thrive app, help them to customise orders, sell package deals and meal combinations, and push loyalty codes,” one of the executives said.

In late 2021, Domino’s operator Jubilant FoodWorks had acquired 35% stake in Thrive for around Rs 24.75 crore, a move it had then said would help it push direct deliveries to consumers as well as provide it access to consumer data.

So far, Coca-Cola — which sells packaged Coke and Thums Up aerated drinks, Minute Maid juices, Georgia coffee and Kinley water — has only selected exclusive global partnerships such as that with fast food chain McDonald’s, which sells only Coca-Cola’s beverages at its outlets.

Coca-Cola India declined to comment on the matter. Dhruv Dewan, co-founder of Hashtag Loyalty, which operates ThriveNow, too declined to comment on the development.

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“The stake acquisition by Coca-Cola will drive consumer engagement for the beverage maker with both restaurant and consumers, and give it access to consumer data since Thrive has a large base of mid-sized restaurant partners offering diverse cuisines. Thums Up, for example, goes well with Indian spicy cuisine while Maaza mango drink can be pushed at restaurants which focus on children,” the executive added.Coca-Cola has been pushing associations and pairings with meals and food as one of its core strategies to increase consumption occasions, Sanket Ray, Coca-Cola president, India and SouthWest Asia, had said in a recent earnings call.

In September last year, Coca-Cola launched its global meals platform called Coke is Cooking in India starting with Kolkata, to push consumers to order its beverages along with food from restaurants.

At that time, Coca-Cola vice-president, head of marketing, India and SouthWest Asia, Arnab Roy, had told ET the company is looking at a vast opportunity to drive consumption with food pairings in India. “Most of the consumption of Coca-Cola brands happens over food. The closest example is McDonald’s. If one goes to McDonald’s, chances are high that the food would be paired with Coke,” Roy had said.

Thrive, a platform set up by three entrepreneurs Dhruv Dewan, Karan Chechani and Krishi Fagwani in 2020, enables consumers to order food across restaurant partners.

Thrive also has a self-serve tool that offers restaurants the option of building their own sub-portals on its platform so they can get direct online orders from consumers.

The platform has gained a large restaurant base because it charges one-fourth the commissions from restaurants compared with 18-25% charged by Zomato and Swiggy.