Tag: zomato

Categories
Business Economy India News

Zomato Pours Funds into Key Ventures

Zomato will also invest Rs 100 crore in Zomato Entertainment, its events arm, which specialises in curating and selling tickets for concerts, parties, and festivals….reports Asian Lite News

Online food delivery platform Zomato has invested Rs 300 crore in its quick commerce arm, Blinkit, as this segment is projected to surpass its core food delivery business.

 The board of the company has approved the investment of Rs 300 crore in Blinkit Commerce, as per filings with the Registrar of Companies accessed via TheKredible.

Additionally, Zomato will also invest Rs 100 crore in Zomato Entertainment, its events arm, which specialises in curating and selling tickets for concerts, parties, and festivals.

With this investment, Zomato has injected Rs 2,300 crore ($277 million) into Blinkit since acquiring it in August 2022. BlinkIt was bought by the food delivery giant in an all-stock transaction for Rs 4,477 crore ($568 million).

Meanwhile, Zomato has said that Blinkit turned adjusted EBITDA positive in March, as the online food delivery platform clocked Rs 194 crore in adjusted EBITDA for the January-March quarter of FY24.

The consolidated adjusted EBITDA improved by Rs 369 crore as compared to the same quarter last year.

The adjusted revenue was Rs 3,873 crore, a 61 per cent growth (year-on-year) for the quarter, as food gross order delivery (GOV) grew 28 per cent (on-year), the company said in a statement.

Last month, Zomato saw its shares sliding on Friday after global financial services company Macquarie forecasted about a 50 per cent decline in the company’s share price in the next 12 months owing to fierce competition.

Zomato shares fell over 5 per cent, before recovering a bit, and was hovering around Rs 173 a piece.

The global brokerage firm has reiterated its “underperform” rating for Zomato, giving its stock a price target of Rs 96.

According to reports, Macquarie also saw downside to both consensus forecast and margins for Zomato-owned quick e-commerce platform Blinkit.

The report came as Blinkit turned adjusted EBITDA positive in March. Zomato aims to reach 1,000 Blinkit stores by the end of FY25.

Zomato registered a profit of Rs 175 crore in Q4 FY24.

Earlier, brokerage firm Emkay Global had maintained a buy rating on Zomato with a target price of Rs 230 per share.

A Goldman Sachs report also said that Blinkit has become more valuable than Zomato’s core food delivery business.

ALSO READ: ‘India Could Add 10 Crore Jobs by 2030’

Categories
Business

Zomato narrows net loss in Q4

Zomato now aims to get to positive adjusted EBITDA (and also profit after tax) on a consolidated basis (including quick commerce) within the next four quarters…reports Asian Lite News

Online food platform Zomato on Friday said that its consolidated net loss narrowed to about Rs 188 crore for the quarter ended March 31, from Rs 360 crore from the year-ago quarter, and from Rs 345 crore from last quarter.

The company reported consolidated revenue at Rs 2,056 crore, a 70 per cent jump from Rs 1,211.8 crore in the year-ago period.

In FY23, Zomato’s loss went down to Rs 971 crore from Rs 1,209 crore a year ago as revenue increased around 70 per cent to Rs 7,079 crore.

“In food delivery, over the last five quarters, we have improved our margins meaningfully while further strengthening our market position. We will continue with the same mindset as we look to further expand the Adjusted EBITDA margin (from the current 1.2 per cent) to our stated goal of +4-5 per cent of GOV,” said Deepinder Goyal, Zomato Founder and CEO.

Meanwhile, Zomato’s arch rival Swiggy declared on Thursday that its food delivery business has become profitable.

Zomato now aims to get to positive adjusted EBITDA (and also profit after tax) on a consolidated basis (including quick commerce) within the next four quarters.

“On the quick commerce side, while there is still a long way to go in terms of margin improvement, we are pleased with the outcomes so far in a short period of time. In the month of March 2023, more than 65 per cent of the GOV was from Contribution positive stores,” said Goyal.

Regarding its quick delivery service Blinkit, contribution margins improved despite a seasonal drop in average order value (AOV).

The AOV was Rs 522 in Q4 in FY23 as compared to Rs 553 in Q3 FY23.

“We have learnt that the AOV in this business will continue to swing up and down in the near to mid-term due to multiple (mainly seasonal) factors. For example, AOVs will go down when there is a good harvest of vegetables (which leads to lower prices for F&V),” said Blinkit Founder and CEO Albinder Dhindsa.

“Over time, as we get scale, we hope to be able to predict such swings better and mitigate the impact of these swings on our margins. We expect the AOV to increase QoQ in the current quarter (Q1FY24),” Dhindsa added.

ALSO READ-Zypp Electric, Zomato team up for EV deployment

Categories
Business India News

Zypp Electric, Zomato team up for EV deployment

Zypp Electric to deploy 1 lakh e-scooters for Zomato by 2024.

The company said that the association is part of a larger plan of Zomato to go completely electric by 2030…reports Asian Lite News

Zypp Electric on Tuesday said it will deploy 1 lakh e-scooters for online food delivery platform Zomato by 2024.

The company said that the association is part of a larger plan of Zomato to go completely electric by 2030.

“This association will enable us to significantly reduce carbon emissions and bring more sustainable last-mile delivery options to our customers. We look forward to working together to create more efficient and environment friendly deliveries,” said Mohit Sardana, COO, food delivery at Zomato.

Zypp Electric, which has raised $37.5 million to date, so far deployed over 13,000 electric vehicles on the roads.

“Food delivery is all on 2-wheelers and is mostly running on petrol and, at the same time, wanting to shift to EVs to save costs. By leveraging our EV fleet management technology and innovative partner solutions, we aim to create a more efficient, sustainable, and customer-centric delivery experience,” said Tushar Mehta, COO and Co-founder, Zypp Electric.

In February, the EV-as-a-service platform raised $25 million led by Gogoro, a global technology leader in the battery swapping ecosystem, in its series B funding.

With the new funds, Zypp aims to increase its fleet size from 10,000 to 200,000 electric vehicles and expand its footprint to 30 cities in India by 2025.

Zypp is currently serving Zomato, Swiggy, BigBasket, Amazon, Flipkart, Zepto, Blinkit, and many more with EV solutions as well as delivery partners.

ALSO READ: ‘Indian schools must embrace coding’

Categories
Business India News

SUN Mobility and Zomato tie-up for EV

SUN Mobility to power 50K EV food delivery vehicles for Zomato.

The move is aligned with Zomato’s commitment to “The Climate Group’s EV100 initiative that implies 100 per cent EV adoption by 2030″…reports Asian Lite News

SUN Mobility on Monday said it has entered into a collaboration with Zomato to power 50,000 electric 2-wheelers across the country over the next 24 months.

The EV company, which will utilise its battery swap solutions for the last-mile deliveries, said the collaboration has been confirmed in Delhi with an initial fleet deployment.

“By deploying 50,000 electric two-wheelers in Zomato’s fleet, we are reducing our carbon footprint by 5,000 MT/month and contributing to a cleaner environment,” said Anant Badjatya, CEO, SUN Mobility.

The move is aligned with Zomato’s commitment to “The Climate Group’s EV100 initiative that implies 100 per cent EV adoption by 2030” and is also in line with SUN Mobility’s mission to electrify last-mile deliveries in India.

“Our associations in the past and now with SUN Mobility to swap batteries will accelerate the transition to EV-based deliveries, further helping us keep our promise of a sustainable Zomato,” said Mohit Sardana, COO, Food Delivery.

The swappable battery technology will enable the last-mile delivery partners to easily and quickly swap their depleted batteries for fully charged ones at SUN Mobility Swap Points.

This will reduce the downtime for recharging, increase the efficiency of the last-mile delivery operations and contribute to a cleaner environment by reducing emissions, said the companies.

Founded in 2017, SUN Mobility is a joint venture between SUN Group and Maini Group.

SUN Mobility has deployed 358 Swap Points in 18 cities to date, powering over 80 million kms and over 4.2 million swaps in the country so far.

ALSO READ: Uncertainty to dominate last week of financial year’s trading

Categories
Business

Zomato sees another high-profile exit

Gunjan Patidar, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Zomato.(photo:@gunjan2307/Twitter)

In a regulatory filing, Zomato said that Patidar was one of the first few employees of Zomato and built the core tech systems for the company….reports Asian Lite News

Online food delivery platform Zomato’s Co-founder and CTO Gunjan Patidar quit after more than 10 years, the company announced on Monday.

This is the second high-profile exit at the company. In November last year, Zomato co-founder Mohit Gupta had moved on after about five years at the food aggregator.

In a regulatory filing, Zomato said that Patidar was one of the first few employees of Zomato and built the core tech systems for the company.

“Over the the last 10 plus years, he also nurtured a stellar tech leadership team that is capable of taking on the mantle of leading the tech function going forward. His contribution to building Zomato has been invaluable,” said the company.

Zomato shares closed at Rs 60.26 apiece on Monday, up 1.52 per cent.

The company said that Patidar was not designated as key managerial personnel under the Companies Act, 2013 and the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015.

In December, the food delivery platform had announced that Rahul Ganjoo ended his 5-year tenure as Head of New Initiatives. Earlier in the month, Zomato’s Vice President for global growth Siddharth Jhawar announced his departure as well.

Zomato in November announced to lay off nearly 3 per cent of its workforce on account of cost-cutting efforts and to turn profitable.

ALSO READ: CarDekho narrows losses by 28% in FY22

Categories
Business

Alibaba to sell Zomato shares worth $200 million

Hangzhou, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- File photo shows the logo of Alibaba Group in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong/IANS)

Zomato’s share price has fallen over 55 per cent this year, amid senior level exits and job cuts….reports Asian Lite News

Chinese behemoth Alibaba is set to sell its shares worth $200 million in Zomato via a block deal on Wednesday, the media reported.

According to CNBC Awaaz, citing sources, Ant Financial and Alipay would bring down their stake in the Deepinder Goyal-run food delivery unicorn to about 10 per cent from the current 13 per cent.

“The block deal is said to happen at a discount of about 5-6 per cent,” said the report.

Zomato refused to comment when contacted by IANS.

Zomato’s share price has fallen over 55 per cent this year, amid senior level exits and job cuts.

In August this year, top VC firm Sequoia Capital India had sold 17.2 crore shares of Zomato in two tranches in the open market, lowering down its stake in the online food aggregator to 4.4 per cent from the earlier 6.41 per cent.

Sequoia Capital India joined a list of private market investors like Delivery Hero, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Tiger Global, which have sold their shares in Zomato in the past months, either in open market or via block deals, as the online food delivery platform’s stock gets hammered.

In the same month, ride-hailing platform Uber sold its 7.8 per cent stake worth over $390 million in Zomato.

In a statement to IANS, Zomato had said, “We are a public company and are not privy to what our shareholders are doing with their shares.”

Zomato stock on Tuesday closed 1.63 per cent down at Rs 63.35.

Zomato’s consolidated net loss decreased to Rs 251 crore for the September quarter, against Rs 430 crore in net loss in the same quarter last year.

The revenue went up to Rs 1,661 crore against Rs 1,024 crore in the year-ago period, a significant 62.2 per cent jump, the company said in a statement.

“This is the first quarter where we have crossed the billion dollar annualised revenue mark (at $1.05 billion),” said Zomato.

Acquisition of Blinkit (quick commerce) closed on August 10.

“Hence, this quarter includes 50 days of Blinkit financials consolidated into our overall financials,” said the company.

Blinkit’s Gross Order Value (GOV) grew 26 per cent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 14.82 billion while the revenue grew 44 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

ALSO READ: Samsung to step up headcount amid layoff season

Categories
Business

Zomato narrows net loss to Rs 251 cr

Zomato(instagram)

The revenue went up to Rs 1,661 crore against Rs 1,024 crore in the year-ago period, a significant 62.2 per cent jump, the company said in a statement…reports Asian Lite News

Online food delivery platform Zomato on Thursday said that its consolidated net loss decreased to Rs 251 crore for the September quarter, against Rs 430 crore in net loss in the same quarter last year.

The revenue went up to Rs 1,661 crore against Rs 1,024 crore in the year-ago period, a significant 62.2 per cent jump, the company said in a statement.

“This is the first quarter where we have crossed the billion dollar annualised revenue mark (at $1.05 billion),” said Zomato.

Acquisition of Blinkit (quick commerce) closed on August 10.

“Hence, this quarter includes 50 days of Blinkit financials consolidated into our overall financials,” said the company.

Blinkit’s Gross Order Value (GOV) grew 26 per cent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 14.82 billion while the revenue grew 44 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

“Adjusted EBITDA loss in quick commerce reduced to Rs 2.59 billion from Rs 3.26 billion in the previous quarter (Q1FY23),” the company said.

Deepinder Goyal, Managing Director and CEO, Zomato, said that he is very happy with the Blinkit acquisition.

“The team integration was quick and turned out great (not saying it was easy). I am confident that the majority of Zomato/Blinkit employees (internally, ‘Eternal’ employees), feel like one team nowadays,” Goyal said in the letter to shareholders.

There were a number of people who didn’t like the transition, and decided to leave, but “we are past all the pain, and now have a stable team at Blinkit which is executing very well to produce outcomes that would surprise the best of us”, he added.

Goyal said that most investors currently ascribe zero value to the Blinkit business, and that’s understandable.

“But I am confident this will change in due course of time,” he noted.

Zomato in June acquired quick-commerce platform Blinkit for Rs 4,447 crore (about $568 million) in an all-stock deal.

ALSO READ: Amazon, TVS Motor join hands for EV mobility

Categories
Business India News

Breather for loss-ridden Zomato

The company recovered losses in the food delivery business. Overall, adjusted loss in EBITDA narrowed to Rs 150 crore in Q1FY23 versus Rs 220 crore in Q14FY22 and Rs 170 crore in Q1FY22…reports Asian Lite News

Online food delivery platform Zomato on Monday reported Rs 185.7 crore in consolidated loss for the quarter ending June 30, compared to a loss of Rs 359.7 crore in the previous quarter.

The consolidated revenue saw 67 per cent increase at Rs 1,413.9 crore from Rs 844.4 crore (same quarter last year), and 16.68 per cent up from Rs 1,211.8 crore in the last reported quarter.

“Growth in revenue was driven by 10 per cent QoQ growth in Gross Order Value (GOV) to Rs 64.3 billion in Q1FY23 and growth in revenue per order. GOV growth was, in turn, driven by robust growth in order volumes and mild growth in average order values as compared to the previous quarter,” said Zomato CFO Akshant Goyal.

Zomato’s shares closed at Rs 46.35 on Monday, down by 1.07 per cent. The company’s market cap is nearly Rs 36,494.39 crore. The company said that losses for Blinkit are coming down every month — from Rs 2,040 million in January to Rs 929 million in July.

“The losses have come down owing to operating leverage and improved execution. As the GOV per day per store goes up, losses come down given the high operating leverage in the business,” it added.

The company recovered losses in the food delivery business. Overall, adjusted loss in EBITDA narrowed to Rs 150 crore in Q1FY23 versus Rs 220 crore in Q14FY22 and Rs 170 crore in Q1FY22.

“The real driver here is focus and mindset. Our focus on profitability has sharpened over the past few months with the change in market context, without compromising our focus on growth,” said Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal.

He said that the company is focused on spending wisely and continually reinforcing a lean cost culture — “particularly in a business like ours which is currently loss making”.

“While we do this, we will continue to focus on retaining (and hiring) talented employees — we understand that a smart, humble and curious team can be our only real moat over the long term,” Goyal added.

ALSO READ: Smartphone shipment continue to fall

Categories
Business

Zomato’s quarter loss widens to Rs 360 crore

Zomato’s revenue from operations during the March quarter reached Rs 1,211.8 crore, a jump of 75.01 per cent as against Rs 692.4 crore in the same period last year….reports Asian Lite News

Online food delivery platform Zomato on Monday reported net loss of Rs 360 crore during the first quarter (Q1) this year — nearly triple from Rs 134.2 crore net loss in the same quarter last year.

The company’s expenses almost doubled to Rs 1,701.7 crore in the March quarter, compared with Rs 885 crore a year ago, according to the company’s regulatory filing.

“Yes, we did see a low QoQ growth in Q3FY22 as dining-out and travel opened up post Covid. We believe that was a one time correction of our growth trajectory on the back of two strong quarters,” Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal said.

“Having said that, even before Covid, growth in our business has been lumpy (and not linear) – so it is essential to take a long term view of our business,” he added.

Zomato’s revenue from operations during the March quarter reached Rs 1,211.8 crore, a jump of 75.01 per cent as against Rs 692.4 crore in the same period last year.

“We are aiming for accelerated growth along with further reduction in losses (and increasing profits in some time). We are clear on what our long term shareholders expect of us and we are working hard to deliver on both growth and profitability expectations,” Goyal said in a statement.

The company’s adjusted revenue grew 8 per cent quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) and 67 per cent year-over-year to Rs 15.4 billion in Q4FY22.

Adjusted EBITDA loss reduced to Rs 2.2 billion (-15 per cent of adjusted revenue) in Q4FY22 as compared to Rs 2.7 billion (-19 per cent of Adjusted Revenue) in Q3FY22.

For the full financial year, Zomato’s loss stood at Rs 1,222.5 crore in 2021-22, compared with Rs 816.4 crore in the previous year.

On Zomato Instant, Goyal said it is currently a pilot to test 10-minute delivery of limited food SKUs.

“The hypotheses that we are testing are — a) do customers order more if delivery time reduces to 10 minutes and b) is there a business model where delivery of food can be done in 10 minutes at the same or better contribution per order than our existing business,” he said.

“We do not have any answers here yet as the pilot has been live for a few days and only in one location. We can perhaps give you some update on this in the next quarter,” he added.

ALSO READ: Apple plans to launch new version of HomePod smart speaker

Categories
Business India News

Zomato share price falls 50%

Zomato share price falls 50%

Investors who hold shares of food aggregator Zomato became poorer by nearly 50 per cent since the start of 2022…reports Asian Lite News

To be precise, they lost 49 per cent in the year-to-date period as the stock hit an all-time low.

Reports that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had ordered a detailed probe against food delivery platforms, Zomato and Swiggy, for alleged unfair business practices with respect to their dealings with restaurant partners also weighed on the share prices recently.

The two online food delivery platforms are allegedly involved in delayed payment cycles and exorbitant commissions.

Post the CCI’s order, Zomato said in a regulatory filing to the exchanges that it will continue to work closely with the Commission to assist them with their investigation and explain to the regulator why all of its practices are in compliance with competition laws and do not have any adverse effect on competition in India.

Also, in the recent months, mutual funds and foreign portfolio investors too have sold some of their shares in the company, according to reports.

On Friday, the shares of the food aggregator settled 2.5 per cent lower at Rs 72.

Meanwhile, restaurant management platform UrbanPiper on Monday announced it has raised $24 million led by existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Tiger Global, and new investors Swiggy and Zomato.

The platform aims to use the funds to scale its product and engineering teams and looks to expand to more than 200,000 restaurant locations globally in the next two years.

“With this investment, we will continue to widen UrbanPipera’s offerings to meet many more digital opportunities in the restaurant ecosystem, along with bolstering our platform capabilities,” said Saurabh Gupta, CEO, UrbanPiper.

UrbanPiper has restaurant chains such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, Subway, Cure Foods, Taco Bell, Rebel Foods, etc., among its user base.

It currently processes over 18 per cent of all online food orders placed each month in India, and has achieved 10 times growth over the past two years, the company said in a statement.

Other investors also participated in the round, including Pankaj Chaddah (Shyft), Ankit Nagori (Curefoods), Saahil Goel and Vishesh Khurana (Shiprocket), Khadim Bhatti and Vara Kumar (Whatfix), among others.

The restaurant management platform is live in more than 27,000 restaurant locations across eight countries.

ALSO READ: Shiprocket To Fuel Zomato

Through UrbanPiper, restaurants can integrate aggregators onto a single dashboard and connect it with their points of sale resulting in a 70 per cent decrease in order failure.

It currently processes 14 million orders per month, which equates to approximately US $750 million of estimated order value annually.

“UrbanPiper is one of our key partners enabling us to seamlessly engage with restaurants and scale faster through their point-of-sale solutions,” said Sriharsha Majety, CEO, Swiggy.

“Sequoia Capital India is excited to deepen the partnership with the UrbanPiper team as they build further on their mission to empower restaurants globally, and welcome Zomato and Swiggy to this partnership,” added Shraeyansh Thakur, Principal, Sequoia India.

UrbanPiper plans to increase its headcount in the country to more than 250 in the next year.