Food delivery and quick commerce major Zomato reported a 57 percent year-on-year (YoY) decline in quarterly profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 59 crore in the third quarter (Q3) of financial year 2024-25 (FY25), down from Rs 138 crore in the same period a year ago. It had reported a PAT of Rs 176 crore in Q2 FY25.

Zomato’s revenue from operations rose 64 percent YoY to Rs 5,404 crore in Q3, up from Rs 3,288 crore a year ago. It had reported a revenue of Rs 4,799 crore in the previous quarter.

While the company did make improvements in profitability on a yearly basis – consolidated Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew 128 percent YoY to Rs 285 crore in Q3FY25 – on the back of improvements in food delivery, its margins suffered on a sequential basis due to investments made in expanding its quick commerce store network.

Its consolidated Adjusted EBITDA declined by 14 percent (~Rs 45 crore) compared to the previous quarter. In fact, Blinkit’s quarterly losses increased by Rs 95 crore.

Total expenses for the Gurugram-based firm increased to Rs 5,533 crore in the quarter ended December, up from Rs 3,383 crore a year ago and Rs 4,783 crore a quarter ago.

Zomato’s cash balance increased to Rs 19,235 crore as at the end of the quarter, largely on account of the net proceeds of its recent Rs 8,446 crore fundraise via a qualified institutional placement (QIP).

Food delivery

Adjusted revenue for its food delivery business increased to Rs 2,413 crore in Q3, up from Rs 2,062 crore in the year ago period, and Rs 2,340 crore a quarter ago.

The gross order value (GOV) for this business, meanwhile, increased marginally from Rs 9,690 crore in Q2FY25 to Rs 9,913 crore in the December quarter due to a slowdown in demand for food delivery. On a yearly basis, GOV increased from Rs 8,486 crore in Q2FY24.

“Currently we are going through a broad-based slowdown in demand which started during the second half of November. Notwithstanding the current slowdown, we are positive about a recovery soon and remain confident of the long-term outlook of over 20 percent yearly GOV growth in the business given the strong fundamentals,” said Rakesh Ranjan, CEO of Zomato’s food delivery business.

In parallel, its adjusted EBITDA margin improved sequentially from 3.5 percent to 4.3 percent.

“We saw margin improvement driven by increase in platform fee for customers and other cost efficiencies and optimizations. We believe the margin should not only sustain, but continue increasing from here to stabilise around 5 percent in the next few quarters,” Ranjan said.

On the other hand, average monthly transacting customers (MTCs) for its food delivery vertical declined marginally to 20.5 million from 20.7 million a quarter ago. The platform had 18.8 million MTCs in the year-ago period.

Blinkit

Zomato’s quick commerce arm Blinkit reported a (EBITDA) loss of Rs 103 crore in Q3FY25, a 16 percent increase year-on-year (YoY) from a loss of Rs 89 crore incurred during the same period last year. On a sequential basis, the adjusted EBITDA loss is significantly higher than Rs 8 crore recorded in Q2FY25.

“The losses in our quick commerce business this quarter are largely on account of pulling forward the growth investments in the business that we would have otherwise made in a staggered manner over the next few quarters,” Deepinder Goyal, co-founder and group CEO, Zomato said in the company’s shareholder letter.

Its revenue increased over 117 percent YoY to Rs 1,399 crore, up from Rs 644 crore in Q3 FY24. Blinkit reported a revenue of Rs 1,156 crore in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, its GOV for the quarter increased to Rs 7.798 crore in the December quarter, compared to Rs 3,542 crore in Q3 FY24 and Rs 6,132 crore in the previous quarter.

Blinkit’s average order value (AOV) stood at Rs 707 in Q3, up from Rs 660 in the previous quarter and Rs 635 in the year-ago period.

Its dark store count increased YoY from 451 last year to 1,007 in Q3 FY25, and average monthly transacting users reached 10.6 million this quarter from 5.4 million in Q3 FY24.

“As of now, it seems like we will get to our target of 2,000 stores by Dec 2025, much earlier than our previous guidance of Dec 2026,” Goyal added.

Going-out

Revenue for Zomato’s Going Out business jumped 254 percent YoY to Rs 259 crore in Q3, compared to Rs 73 crore in Q3 FY24. Its revenue came in at Rs 154 crore a quarter ago. GOV for the business increased to Rs 2,495 crore in Q3, from Rs 1,849 crore a quarter ago and Rs 858 crore a year ago.

Zomato had announced the launch of District – a separate app for its live events and ticketing business after acquiring Paytm Insider – in November 2024, and has now crossed 6.5 million downloads.

Zomato’s going-out vertical consists of District and its dining-out business. While the core business continued to be profitable, the quarterly loss in Q3 FY25 was largely driven by the investment in the new District app.

“We are likely to operate in losses for the next year or so but we don’t expect them to be meaningful in the overall context of Zomato,” said Zomato’s Rahul Ganjoo.

Going forward, management at the firm expects growth in this vertical to be driven by growth in the underlying categories and an increase in market share.

“We believe that strong execution can significantly alter the growth trajectory of the underlying categories here, given the latent demand and unaddressed opportunity. If we execute well, we don’t see why this business cannot grow at over 40 percent YoY at least for the next couple of years,” Ganjoo added.

Hyperpure

Zomato’s business-to-business (B2B) supplies vertical, Hyperpure, saw its revenue rise 95 percent YoY to Rs 1,671 crore in Q3, compared to Rs 859 crore in the same period last year. The company reported a revenue of Rs 1,473 crore a year ago.