2016 might’ve been a seminal year for Zomato as it entered the food ordering business, but the move has come with a price. The company’s losses have more than trebled to Rs. 492 crore for the year ending March 2016. For the same period last year, its losses were Rs. 136 crore.
Zomato’s revenues, however, haven’t kept pace with its losses. Its operating revenues managed to double from Rs. 96 crore last year to Rs. 184 crore in 2016.
Earlier this month, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal had claimed “they are profitable in the order business at a unit economics level, and the overall online ordering business will hit profitability when they hit an average of 40,000 orders a day”. In February, Zomato had claimed to have achieved operational break even in six countries including India, the UAE, Lebanon, Qatar, the Philippines and Indonesia.
Less than 3 weeks ago, HSBC had slashed Zomato’s valuation by half. It had valued the company at $500 million, which was significantly lower than the $1 billion valuation it had raised money at last year.
Zomato’s has had a tough few months in the recent past, having let go of 10% of its staff in late 2015 and having to pull out of its food ordering business in 4 cities. The entire food tech sector has been beset with uncertainty this year. Foodpanda has laid off 300 employees, and rival TinyOwl has shut its operations in all cities other than Mumbai.