Why Shadowfax Thinks The 15-Minute Delivery Game Isn’t A Gimmick

India’s last-mile delivery business has grown rapidly over the past decade. With millions of consumers turning to online platforms for food, groceries, medicines and e-commerce, logistics players have had to adapt to a new normal: faster deliveries, tighter timelines and wider coverage.

Quick commerce, or 10–15 minute delivery, is now part of urban consumption in India. Grocery and food apps have reshaped expectations, and platforms are racing to meet demand. But concerns around profitability, quality control and road safety have raised questions about how sustainable the model really is.

Shadowfax, a logistics platform that delivers across sectors, says the push for speed is not a marketing play. “Not all customers need delivery in 15 minutes,” said Vaibhav Khandelwal, co-founder and CTO. “But if they are told something will arrive in two to three days, many are likely to choose a competitor that promises same-day delivery.”

The company works with over one lakh delivery partners and handles up to three million deliveries a day across more than 2,500 Indian cities. It began in 2014 as a food delivery startup but shifted focus as the market changed. Shadowfax now offers delivery services for e-commerce firms, pharmacy players and grocery apps. By reassigning resources across categories through the day, it reduces idle time and evens out delivery peaks.

“When we saw that food delivery was too peaky — mostly during lunch and dinner — we added grocery in the mid-morning slots and e-commerce in the afternoons,” said Khandelwal. “The idea was to flatten the curve, not just scale one use case.”

The company also claims it has reduced its reliance on third-party mapping tools. Its internal “SF Maps” engine, trained on more than two billion past deliveries, predicts lat-long data for new addresses. Khandelwal said the system offers higher location accuracy than third-party maps and helps optimise routes without relying on real-time location input from consumers.

While concerns around road safety and dark store regulation remain, Shadowfax says the core demand for faster delivery is real. “We believe models like South Korea’s — where people order by midnight and receive shipments before work — will work in India too,” said Khandelwal. “Same-day delivery is a real expectation now.”

Despite pressure across the sector, Shadowfax has turned Ebitda positive and says it remains so in FY25. The company has confirmed that it is preparing for an IPO and is investing in early pilots around mid-mile drone delivery, particularly for warehouse-to-dark-store legs in metro cities.

“Speed is no longer a niche ask,” said Khandelwal. “It’s about how we deliver it profitably and safely.”