Zomato says Instant not shutting down, but rebranding on the cards

Zomato has turned down a report that claimed that it was shutting down its 10-minute food delivery service, Zomato Instant.

The company, however, added that it was rebranding the business and that no people were affected by the move.

“Instant is not shutting down. We are working on a new menu with our partners and rebranding the business. All finishing stations remain intact, and no people are impacted by this decision,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to Entrackr.

At the moment, it is not clear that the so-called rebranded version will continue to have the 10-minute delivery feature.

In March 2022, Zomato unveiled Zomato Instant under which customers will receive food in 10 minutes, on the lines of instant delivery services such as BlinkIt.

Zomato had said each of its finishing stations will house bestseller items (2o to 30 dishes) from various restaurants based on demand predictability and hyperlocal preferences.

“Due to demand predictability at a hyperlocal level, we expect that the price for the customer will get significantly reduced, while the absolute ₹ margin/income for our restaurant partners as well as our delivery partners, will remain the same,” the company had then explained.

In September 2022, company co-founder Mohit Gupta said the service was in an “extended pilot phase” and scaled from two to six locations in the Delhi-NCR region.

According to the Economic Times report cited above, Zomato plans to launch a new version of Instant in the next seven to 10 days.

Like many other startups, Zomato is said to have set its sights on achieving profitability. At its general meeting in August last year, the company had expressed optimism about  turning  profitable within a year.

The food delivery platform is also among the first wave of startups to list on the national stock exchange. Since its public debut in July 2021, its shares have dwindled over 50% from highs hit post listing.

Zomato’s gross revenue grew over 2X to Rs 4,192 crore during the fiscal year ending March 2022 after witnessing a dip of 24% in scale during FY21, according to Fintrackr’s analysis. Its rival Swiggy, whose scale also contracted by 27% in FY21, managed to do better, and grew 2.2X to Rs 5,705 crore during FY22.