Zomato spent $500 Mn to attain 3X jump in revenue to $206 Mn

While we are still discussing previous fiscal's financial statements revealed by many startups, Zomato takes one step ahead and files the financial health of the company in the recently concluded financial year - FY19.

According to the company's annual report, it clocked $206 million in revenue for the fiscal year ended on March 31, 2019. The figure is eye-popping as it registered 3 fold jump after concluding FY18 with $66-68 million in revenue.

The revenue has also surpassed the company's highest revenue run-rate of $100 million which it achieved in March 2018 as well as the target it set of $180 million in revenue in FY19.

Currently, the Gurugram-based foodtech Unicorn is growing at a revenue run- rate of $350 million.

The total expense (cost) recorded by Zomato took a six-fold jump to $500 million in FY19 from $80 million in FY18.

Interestingly, the company has spent approximately $294 million on “promotional marketing spends to acquire new users” and expanding geographically across the country. This essentially means that to earn that $206 million revenue (rather an even lesser amount because sales revenue is lesser than overall revenue), the company spent $294 million.

Zomato’s attempts to drive sales on discounts were never invisible. However, this raises a drastic question of the feasibility of this practice by the company of Zomato’s stature.

Although Zomato did not disclose the loss figure for FY19, it revealed that a significant loss was recorded due to its food delivery business, hike in marketing expense and costs associated with its aggressive first-to-market strategy.

The Deepinder Goyal-led company saw delivery revenue for the 12 months at $155 million in FY19 from $38 million in FY18.

Zomato has also clarified that the current financial report is unaudited and it is based on Indian Accounting Standard — which means discount-driven promotional cost borne by it will not be deducted from revenue until the audit.

Globally, Zomato has a presence in over 10,000 cities with more than 1.4 million active restaurants on its platform. Additionally, it claims to have 70 million active users on its platform and 11 million app installations.

In India, it recently expanded its operation to over 200 cities and clocking 38 million monthly orders.