After announcing Q3 results, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal said on Thursday that at the food delivery platform “winter is NOT coming”. Goyal said as tech industry is announcing layoffs, “this is the best time to be on the lookout for great talent”.
“Rough years for the tech industry are only a blip. Globally, companies may have gone on the defensive but we believe attack is the best defense. This is the best time to be on the lookout for great talent,” said Goyal on Twitter. Rival food delivery firm Swiggy last month cut 380 jobs, citing challenging macroeconomic conditions.
Zomato’s consolidated net loss widened to Rs 347 crore from Rs 63.2 crore a year earlier, as total expenses rose 51.3%.
The loss-making company, which went public in 2021, reaffirmed that it expected to report adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in the second quarter of fiscal 2024.
#TechWinter
At Zomato, winter is NOT coming.
Rough years for the tech industry are only a blip. Globally, companies may have gone on the defensive but we believe attack is the best defense. This is the best time to be on the lookout for great talent.
(4/n)
Adjusted EBITDA, excluding the contribution from local grocery delivery service Blinkit, turned positive in January, Zomato said. Its consolidated revenue from operations rose 75.2% to Rs 1,948 crore in the third quarter.
Goyal announced that Zomato Instant is being remodelled into Zomato Everyday to offer customers home-style cooked meals.
“We are working on remodeling the Zomato Instant service to focus on offering our customers home-style cooked meals at affordable prices (will be called Zomato Everyday). We believe that this is a large opportunity in a market like India and is relatively untapped currently. We plan to launch this soon in the next few weeks,” wrote Goyal in a letter to shareholders.
Goyal said the Zomato Gold programme has scaled to over 9 lakh members in less than a month of its launch.
“The key highlight of Zomato Gold is ‘On Time Guarantee’. This feature was three years in the making, and the tech which powers this feature is a significant achievement for our team. Gold members also get priority access to more restaurants during peak times and offers from a number of restaurants on both delivery and dining-out. We have also made our intercity delivery from legendary restaurants (called Intercity Legends) exclusively available to Gold members. And of course, free delivery on orders meeting certain criteria,” said Goyal.
Order volumes at Zomato’s mainstay food delivery business rose 14%, while the average order value increased 6%.
While terming the delivery partners as the business’ ‘backbone’, Goyal said, “We have set ourselves a goal of ‘zero’ on-road delivery partner fatalities and are working towards it with prompt ambulance support, incorporating reflectors on all delivery partner assets, and several other initiatives.”