Zomato’s loss more than triples in FY16

BENGALURU: Online restaurant discovery and food ordering service Zomato’s revenue nearly doubled to Rs 185 crore for the 2015-16 financial year compared to the year before when it had Rs 97 crore in revenue. The Gurugram-based firm's losses, however, rose 262% to Rs 492 crore, from Rs 136 crore in the previous fiscal, the company’s largest shareholder Info Edge said in its 2015-16 annual results filings to the BSE.
Info Edge, which owns 47% stake in Zomato, also runs portals such as Naukri.com, 99acres and Jeevansathi. The Times Group, which publishes this paper, runs portals like Magicbricks, Timesjobs and competes with InfoEdge’s properties.

Zomato, founded by IIT graduates Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in 2008, has so far raised $225 million from investors, including Rs 483 crore from Info Edge.
TOI reported on May 9 that HSBC Securities and Capital Markets, in its report on Info Edge, had marked down Zomato’s valuation by 50%, attributing it to the company’s losses and the markets that it operates in.

Food technology startups across the globe are struggling. Indian food tech startups are facing investor flak for offering heavy discounts and free delivery. One such startup, TinyOwl, has shut operations across the country except in Mumbai.
Zomato has operations in 23 countries, and Goyal recently said that the food ordering business is growing rapidly, and is now doing 33,000 orders a day. He also projected that the company would hit profitability at 40,000 orders, which he expects in the next 3-4 months.