A delivery worker of Zomato.
Credit: Reuters photo
Bengaluru: Zomato, on Tuesday, said its board had approved a fund raise of Rs 8,500 crore via qualified institutional placement (QIP), and reported its quarterly earnings for the July-September quarter (Q2FY25) on Tuesday. The latest planned capital infusion comes amidst heated competition in the quick commerce sector.
"We want to be on a level playing field with our competitors, who continue to raise additional capital," Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal said.
While peer Swiggy is set for a $12 billion initial public offering, Zepto raised $340 million in its latest funding round.
Zomato reported a 389% growth in its consolidated net profit year-on-year, at Rs 176 crore in Q2. However, the bottomline fell short of analyst estimates of Rs 270 crore.
The company's revenue from operations stood at Rs 4,799 crore, up 68% from the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.
Zomato’s quick commerce arm Blinkit added 152 net new dark stores during the second quarter, taking the total count to 791 for the quarter ended in September.
However, the margins remained under pressure despite the addition. “While most of our stores today are profitable with expanding margins, we are not seeing margin expansion at aggregate level at this moment because of the investments we are making towards scaling our infrastructure,” the company’s chief financial officer Akshant Goyal said.
Zomato’s quick commerce arm Blinkit saw adjusted revenue more than double at Rs 1,156 crore in Q2FY25 from Rs 505 crore in Q2FY24, showcasing strong growth in the quick commerce segment.
Zomato’s gross order value (GOV) for business-to-consumer (B2C) vertical rose 55% on a YoY basis at Rs 17,670 crore with food delivery GOV posting a 21% growth.
“Our cash balance reduced by Rs 1,726 crore as compared to the previous quarter on account of the deal consideration of Rs 2,014 crore for the acquisition of Paytm’s entertainment ticketing business,” Goyal said on the recent acquisition.
The food aggregator had announced the launch of a new app, District, to expand to ‘going out’ services such as dining, movies , live performances, creating a one-stop destination for customers. “The new app should be live in the next four weeks,” he said.