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Zomato rose 7.87% to Rs 50 after the online food delivery platform reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 186 crore in Q1 June 2022, as against net loss of Rs 360.70 crore in Q1 June 2021. Zomato reported a net loss of Rs 359.70 crore in Q4 March 2022. Revenue from operations stood at Rs 1,413.9 crore in Q1 June 2022, up 67.44% from Rs 844.4 crore reported in Q1 June 2021. Adjusted EBITDA loss reduced to Rs 150 crore (-8% of adjusted revenue) in Q1FY23 compared with Rs 220 crore (-15% of adjusted revenue) in Q4 FY22.

Zomato defines adjusted Ebidta as EBITDA (+) share-based payment expense (-) rental accounting adjustment for Ind AS 116. Growth in revenue was driven by ~10% QoQ growth in Gross Order Value ("GOV") to Rs 6430 crore in Q1FY23 and growth in revenue per order. GOV growth was in turn driven by robust growth in order volumes and mild growth in average order values as compared to the previous quarter. On the profitability front, the food delivery business hit an important milestone last quarter by getting to adjusted EBITDA break-even. Contribution as a % of GOV increased to 2.8% in Q1FY23 as compared to 1.7% in Q4FY22 driven by improvements on both cost and revenue side. Deepinder Goyal, chief executive officer, said, "The real driver here is focus and mindset. Our focus on profitability has sharpened over the past few months with the change in market context, without compromising our focus on growth. We are doing that by assessing everything with a critical lens and allocating resources by taking a long-term view to sustainable growth, as well as profit." In a letter to shareholders, Goyal said there is no plan to make any more minority investments. "We are in cash conservation mode, and are busy executing what we already have on our plates right now," he said. Stating that the company has shut down many lines of business, cities and even country operations that no longer made sense, Goyal said, "operationally, we continue to say no to competing with our restaurant partners - we own zero restaurant brands or cloud kitchens, and have no investments or financial interest in any restaurant brand/kitchen." Going forward, the big driver of order volume growth, Goyal said, will be monthly transacting customers. "If you compare Q1FY23 with Q1FY22, average monthly transacting customers have increased by 36% while the average monthly order frequency has also increased by 10% in the same period.

Growth in monthly transacting customers will be a function of higher repeat rate of the existing customer base of Zomato (50+ million annual transacting customers in FY22) and new customer addition which remains robust," he said. Goyal said losses for Blinkit are coming down every month - from Rs 204 crore in January 2022 to Rs 92.90 crore in July 2022E.

The losses have come down owing to operating leverage and improved execution. Blinkit has also shut down a number of unviable dark stores, which were not scaling. This has also brought the losses down. In terms of geographic presence, the plan for now is to stay focused on the top 15 cities and deepen Blinkit's presence in these markets, he added. Goyal said that the Zomato cash balance stood at Rs 11,400 crore as at 30 June 2022.

Zomato connects customers, restaurant partners and delivery partners. Customers use Zomato to search and discover restaurants, read and write customer generated reviews and view and upload photos, order food delivery, book a table and make payments while dining-out at restaurants. On the other hand, it provides restaurant partners with industry-specific marketing tools which enable them to engage and acquire customers to grow their business while also providing a reliable and efficient last mile delivery service. The company also operates a one-stop procurement solution, Hyperpure, which supplies high quality ingredients and kitchen products to restaurant partners.