‘Our job is to fill the gaps in going-out that nobody is solving’

With District by Zomato clocking a Net Order Value (NOV) of Rs 2,063 crore in Q2FY26—up 32% YoY— Eternal’s third major vertical is moving beyond its early experimentation stage.

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Ina conversation with Anees Hussain, Rahul Ganjoo, CEO, District by Zomato, talks about why he believes the real opportunity in the ‘going-out’ business lies in solving the entire consumer journey rather than just the transaction.Excerpts:

Ticketing is software, but ground reality—traffic, infrastructure—is a hardware problem. How deep are you going into operations?

We believe the venue determines the experience, not just the artist. For example, we are importing and owning Norwegian technology for toilets to solve hygiene issues rather than using standard local portaloos. We already own the Terraform venue in Bengaluru and plan to own more to improve unit economics. We are also investing in peripheral assets. At MMRDA grounds in Mumbai, building and destroying a ‘mini-city’ for every show in 24 hours is inefficient. We are now buying our own inventory, from stage setups to the tarps used to prevent dust, to reuse across events. We want to own the experience end-to-end, not just the ticket code.

Is the plan to own only large arenas?