In April 2017, food discovery and ordering startup Zomato announced on its blog saying its revenue in 2016-17 rose 80 per cent from a year ago to touch $49 million. It reasoned growth in advertisements and the food delivery business led rise to the revenue.
The company’s blog also claimed that during the period, Zomato’s cash burn fell to $12 million from $64 million a year ago.
A year later, RoC filings throw a true picture of the company’s growth. As estimated, it has been able to double its revenue to Rs 399 crore in the year ended 31 March 2017.
Besides, it has been able to reduce net losses as well which fell to Rs 389 crore in the FY17. The net losses stood at Rs 590 crore in the previous year.
Zomato launched its delivery business in March 2015. Though the company made a late entry into the segment, it managed to catch up with other players like Swiggy and Foodpanda at a fast pace.
The foodtech platform is continuing to bet big on food delivery in the year 2017-18.
In September 2017, it acquired hyperlocal logistics startup Runnr in all-stock deal. Runnr then fulfilled about 300,000 orders for Zomato monthly. Zomato then claimed to fulfill delivery of over 3 million orders monthly.
The company fulfills only about 7 per cent of orders through third-party delivery companies and the rest 93 per cent is fulfilled by restaurants. In a media interaction, the company’s CEO Deepinder Goyal then said that the hybrid delivery model approach solves for both a) providing large number of choices to consumers and b) having a sustainable and profitable business model.
Zomato: A $100 Mn projection for FY19
Though we are yet to see the performance of Zomato in FY18, the company’s CEO Deepinder Goyal last week claimed in a tweet that the company has hit $100 million in annual revenue run rate as of March this year. Besides, it has grown 40 per cent in just the last 2 months.
Importantly, the company claims to achieve the new growth numbers on the back of increasing delivery and other services. Early this month, Zomato announced the subscription-based Zomato Gold membership programme has amassed around 15,000 users in India.
In April last year, Zomato had launched ‘Zomato Treats’, at a subscription fee of Rs 249. It lets subscribers avail a free dessert with every meal they order across 16 cities in India.
The food discovery and order platform also announced a commission-free campaign for its restaurant partners in September last year.
Last year, the company also claimed to achieve profitability in all the 24 countries of the world where it operates.
Zomato has been following an aggressive growth path. Last month, Alibaba-owned entity Alipay pumped-in $200 million in the food tech major.
