Restaurant-listings and food delivery platform Zomato has narrowed its loss to Rs 389 crore for the financial year 2016-17 from Rs 590.1 crore in the year-ago period, according to the annual report of its largest shareholder Info Edge (India) Ltd.
The company reported revenues of Rs 332.3 crore for FY2017, up 80.6% from Rs 183.9 crore in the previous year.
“Among the investee companies, cash burn has reduced significantly at Zomato while revenues are picking up...Overall, the company is expected to deliver good growth in revenues across brands, profitability of the brands are expected to improve, but at the aggregate level, the company will have to keep on investing in products and people to maintain leadership in a market, which is fast getting exposed/prone to competition,†the report said.
Info Edge, which owns a slew of Internet properties such as job portal Naukri, real estate website 99acres and matrimonial portal Jeevansathi, has invested nearly Rs 482 crore in Zomato and has a 45% stake in the company.
Other firms it has invested in include coupons site Mydala, online insurance policy aggregator PolicyBazaar, e-learning firm Meritnation, online photography startup Canvera Digital Technologies, beauty services marketplace BigStylist, mobility- and cloud-based software developer Rare Media Company Pvt Ltd, among others.
Gurgaon-based Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd. had earlier said in a blog that its cash burn dropped 81% to $12 million (Rs 77.5 crore at current exchange rates) in 2016-17 from $64 million the year before. The company had also said that it has redesigned its advertisement model, which offered a simpler interface and provided greater visibility to well-rated advertisers. It also took measures to enhance the efficiency of the ad sales team as part of its efforts to accelerate growth.
Last year, Zomato launched its first cloud kitchen in Delhi-NCR and a premium membership programme, Zomato Gold, in Lisbon and Dubai.
Zomato’s food-ordering business contributes 20% to the company’s top line. Revenue from the vertical jumped eight-fold from the previous year to around $9 million in 2016-17.
In the food ordering space, Zomato’s competitors include Bundl Technologies Pvt Ltd-owned Swiggy.com and Foodpanda.com, owned by Germany’s Delivery Hero.
Earlier this month, several media reports had said that Zomato was close to acquiring last-mile delivery startup Runnr. UberEATS, the food-delivery service of cab-hailing firm Uber, was also one of the contenders to buy out Runnr.