LAYING A FULL PLATE

Deepinder Goyal is diversifying business to get as much share of consumer wallets as possible

- BY SIDDHARTH ZARABI & KRISHNA GOPALAN

There is a sense of newness at Zomato. The corporate entity has a new name, Eternal, and a new structure. In FY24, it turned profitable and, since than, has been able to sustain that. This helped the company—which leads in the food delivery and quick commerce segments—prove the strength of its business model and get more investor interest.

This is a sea change from the time it announced the acquisition of Blinkit, a quick commerce player, in June 2022 for $569 million (then ₹4,447 crore). The stock market gave a thumbs down to the deal. The Zomato stock fell by a third from its listing price. Despite that, the management bet on the compelling growth opportunity and went ahead with the purchase. Today, Blinkit is generating massive excitement as Zomato re-writes the rulebook on making new-age companies profitable.

A ROUGH RIDE

For Deepinder Goyal, the founder and CEO of Zomato, it has been a roller coaster ride ever since Zomato got listed in July 2021. From an offer price of ₹76 per share, the stock, at one point, plummeted to ₹47. It was trading around ₹202 on March 12, leaving decent money on the table for investors. The peak was ₹300-plus, towards the end of 2024. Reflecting on how much has changed over the last few years, Goyal says the listing has been a positive.

"As a privately held company, some investors want data daily or weekly and there is a lot of explaining that is done. With this quarter-to-quarter disclosure cycle, we can think long-term and take initiatives that will pan out much later," he says. Each of the businesses is uniquely different with technology playing a critical function.