Zomato records 80% jump in FY17 revenues; significantly reduces expenses

Zomato, the domestic food technology startup, recorded $49 million revenues in FY17, an 80% y-o-y growth primarily due to spike in advertisements and the food delivery business. The company also significantly reduced its cash burn to $12 million in FY17 compared to $64 million last year which was a major cause of concern last year as it was leaking money.

Surobhi Das, COO Zomato, said that “FY16, a year ago, wasn’t ideal for us despite having achieved 2X revenue growth over FY15. That’s because our cash burn was very high at an average of $4.2m a month. Along with the burn rate, we were also in the middle of consolidating/rationalizing our international operations to make better use of our execution bandwidth moving forward”.

Zomato, which had raised $225 million capital funding since inception in 2008, currently operates in 23 countries, making it one among a few of Indian consumer Internet start-ups with a global presence. In FY17, the startup’s core advertising revenues grew 58% y-o-y to $38 million, while the food delivery business, where it competes with Swiggy and Foodpanda, recorded $9 million revenues, an eight-fold jump from FY16. Apart from advertising and food delivery, the company also has its presence in online restaurant table reservation, and plans to create kitchen spaces in areas where there isn’t adequate supply of good restaurants and will allow restaurants and top brands to prepare and deliver food exclusively for Zomato through these kitchens.