By Sai Ishwarbharath B and Praveen Paramasivam

BENGALURU, June 10 (Reuters) - India's BigBasket plans

to roll out 10-minute food delivery services nationwide by the

end of fiscal 2026 as competition intensifies in the $7.1

billion quick-commerce space, its executive told Reuters on

Tuesday.

The Tata-backed grocery giant will take on established

players such as Swiggy's Snacc, Blinkit's

Bistro and Zepto Cafe, which already deliver coffee

and ready-to-eat snacks in less than 15 minutes.

BigBasket is targeting customers of the existing food

delivery firms such as Zomato and Swiggy while also unlocking a

new pool of customers, co-founder Vipul Parekh told Reuters.

It plans to use dark stores to fuel the service, Parekh

added, extending its foothold in India's booming quick-commerce

market, which Blume Venture's Indus Valley report calls the

"fastest-growing industry segment ever."

Dark stores are small warehouses in densely populated

neighbourhood buildings, where delivery partners, typically

two-wheeler riders, pick up groceries or food for delivery.

BigBasket, which brought online grocery delivery service to

India in 2011, aims to increase its dark store count from about

700 currently to 1,000-1,200 by the end of 2025.

Following a pilot run that began a month ago in the southern

city of Bengaluru, the food delivery service will now be

expanded to 40 dark stores by July-end, Parekh said.

Currently, about 5%-10% of BigBasket's customers who are

offered the service are clubbing quick-food items with their

normal online orders, but this is expected to grow further, he

added.

The menu will comprise items from coffee chain Starbucks ( SBUX ) and

Indian Hotels' food arm Qmin, both part of the Tata

group in India. No external restaurants will be partnered with,

the firm said.

Meanwhile, Parekh dismissed media reports of BigBasket

seeking external investors for fundraising and reiterated the

company's plan to go public within the next 18-24 months.

"One of the advantages we have is, being a part of Tata

Group, you have enough internal capital available."