Deliveroo and Grab Food are  behaving anti-competitvely in Singapore, claims Smart City Kitchens, who has reportedly appealed to the local watchdog committee, according to The New Paper.
Established in 2019, Smart City Kitchens is a cloud kitchen startup affiliated with former Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick. It touts itself as the first operator in Singapore that is not associated with any particular delivery service; restaurants operating here are free to choose their own delivery partners.
The company’s general manager Warren Tseng said at a press conference yesterday that Deliveroo and Grab Food, two big providers of delivery services in Singapore, have refused to list restaurants operating out of Smart City’s kitchen on their platforms.
At least seven restaurants who are already working with Smart City Kitchens are said to be severely affected by Deliveroo and Grab Food allegedly shutting them out of their services.
Tseng describes the moves by Deliveroo and GrabFood as “[going] against the spirit of fair play and healthy competition.” In response, the cloud kitchen operator appealed to the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS), imploring the committee to level the playing field.
Grab Food and Deliveroo make up approximately 60% of the online food delivery market in Singapore and both have their own interests in the cloud kitchen space.
Deliveroo who, next to deliveries, also operates three shared kitchens in Singapore. Grab has also been exploring the concept. Both platforms have argued that they’re still in the process of evaluating options and considering what’s best for them and their restaurant partners.
After the press conference yesterday, CCCS said it is looking into the matter.
