Zomato saw losses shooting up to 262% and revenues doubling in FY16

Zomato, the online restaurant discovery and food ordering service, has seen its losses growing up in big numbers, given that it has started to put in big money on online food delivery services, even as the Indian food-tech category is struggling to survive.

For FY 2015-16, the loss before tax was up by 262% and reached Rs 492.3 crore, while it was Rs 136 crore in the previous year, revealed Info Edge, a majority investor in Zomato.

Also, the operating revenues have nearly doubled to Rs 184.97 crore for FY 15-16 from Rs 96.7 crore in the previous year.

It was in February that Zomato had claimed that it has achieved operational break even in six countries, viz. India, the UAE, Lebanon, Qatar, the Philippines and Indonesia.

However, the year has not been easy for the Gurgaon-based company, which laid off about 10% of its workforce in October 2015, while rolling back online ordering in four cities in January 2016. It also shifted its strategy so that it can emphasise more on its enterprise products in the newer markets.

However, not just Zomato, the entire food-tech category is struggling in India because of a funding slowdown, with several companies either shutting down or getting acquired by larger companies.

Earlier this month, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets, the brokerage arm of HSBC, had also slashed the valuation of Zomato by half, raising concerns around the ad-heavy business model, something that owner Deepinder Goyal had objected to in a blog post.

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