Zomato trims Q4 losses, aims to turn fully profitable in a year; Delhivery quarterly revenue slips, loss widens

Also in this letter:
■ Transfers from Alpha fully compliant with credit agreement: Byju’s
■ BGMI to be relaunched soon after ban lifts
■ ETtech Deals Digest

Zomato revenue surges 70%, loss narrows to Rs 188 crore

Food and grocery delivery platform Zomato reported a drop in its net losses and a major jump in its revenue during the fourth quarter (Q4) of FY23.

Financial performance: Zomato’s consolidated net loss narrowed to Rs 188 crore from Rs 360 crore a year ago, much below the street’s expectations of Rs 356 crore. Its consolidated revenues increased 70% year-on-year to Rs 2,056 crore but were a tad lower than the estimated Rs 2,122 crore.

Also read: Zomato continues to watch ONDC progress closely; claims it gained market share in Jan-Mar

Deepinder Goyal, CEO, Zomato, said, “I would rate our current confidence level at 9/10. How are we aiming to get there? By 1) increasing profits from the food delivery business and 2) reducing losses in the quick commerce (Blinkit) business.”

Also read: Deepinder Goyal confident of turning entire biz profitable within four quarters

Food delivery biz: The gross order value in the food delivery business rose to Rs 6,569 crore from Rs 5,853 crore a year ago, but dipped from Rs 6,680 crore a quarter ago. The overall food business reported a revenue of Rs 1,530 crore for the quarter, compared with Rs 1,284 crore a year ago. The company announced key appointments.

• Rakesh Ranjan as CEO, Rinshul Chandra as COO of food ordering and delivery business

• Rishi Arora named CEO of B2B vertical Hyperpure

Blinkit’s performance: Zomato’s quick commerce business Blinkit saw its revenue jump 20% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 363 crore in the period ending March 31, 2023 even as its gross merchandise value increased 17% to Rs 2,040 crore. While Blinkit’s total number of orders jumped 25% to 39.2 million quarter-on-quarter, its average order value dropped yet again to Rs 522, down from Rs 553 in the quarter ending December 31, 2022. Blinkit founder Albinder Dhindsa said, the average order value (AOV) is a function of seasons and multiple other factors

Also read: Leaving Urban Company board was right since we are exploring something similar: Deepinder Goyal

Delhivery Q4 results: Loss widens to Rs 159 crore; revenue falls 10%

Logistics firm Delhivery on Friday reported its consolidated net loss widened to Rs 159 crore during the March quarter. The company had clocked a loss of Rs 120 crore in the March quarter of last year. Revenue from operations fell 10% to Rs 1,860 crore for the quarter under review, which was Rs 2,072 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

Ebdita improvements: Adjusted Ebdita for the quarter turned positive to Rs 6 crore in the fourth quarter, compared to a loss of Rs 67 crore in the third quarter. Meanwhile, adjusted Ebdita margin improved to 0.3% and incremental gross margin in the core express parcel and PTL (partial truck load) business continued to be above 50%.

Quote, unquote: “We were confident of continued improvement in the core transportation business and overall profitability at the end of last quarter and are happy to report we have delivered both in this quarter as planned,” said Sahil Barua, MD and CEO, Delhivery. “We have aggressive infrastructure and capability expansion plans in place and are confident of the strong start in April and H1 of May continuing through the year,” Barua said. On Friday, Delhivery stock closed 1.79% lower at Rs 359.05 apiece on NSE.

Transfers from Alpha fully compliant with credit agreement: Byju’s

A day after Byju’s subsidiary — Byju’s Alpha — was accused of hiding $500 million from lenders in the US, the edtech giant said the transfers were “in full compliance” with and “did not contravene any terms of the parties’ Credit Agreement and the agreed-upon rights and responsibilities”.

Byju’s response: Categorically denying the allegations, Byju’s said in a statement, “This is an interim order of a Delaware Court to maintain status quo in relation to Byju’s Alpha, a non-operative US entity set up to receive the Term Loan B, with no employees. The litigants have made bewildering claims that Byju’s ‘moved’ $500 million from Byju’s Alpha, insinuating that these acts were somehow wrongful. This is entirely incorrect.”

Catch up quick: The clarification is in response to a lawsuit that Byju’s Alpha faces in a Delaware court, concerning the recovery of a $1.2 billion loan taken by the edtech major in 2021.

Lenders who filed the suit have claimed that because of the default earlier this year, they have the right to put their representative, Timothy R. Pohl, in charge, news agency Bloomberg first reported on May 18.

Multiple allegations: Last month, the Enforcement Directorate searched the premises of the edtech firm for alleged violation of foreign exchange rules.

Last year, the ministry of corporate affairs questioned Byju’s for delaying its FY21 results. The firm was also criticised for getting Lionel Messi on board as an ambassador after it laid off close to 2,500 employees in October.

Krafton to relaunch BGMI after Centre temporarily lifts ban

Almost 10 months after being banned by the Indian government, gaming firm Krafton says it will be relaunching the popular mobile game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI).

Driving the news: The prohibition on the game has been lifted for 90 days, following which the government is expected to review whether it is compliant with Indian laws and decide if the ban should be lifted permanently or reinstated again.

“This is a 3 month trial approval of #BGMI aftr it has complied wth issues of server locations n data security etc. We will keep a close watch on other issues of User harm, Addiction etc in the next 3 months before a final decision is taken,” tweeted union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Quote, unquote: “We would like to express our deep appreciation to the Indian authorities for permitting us to restart the operations of BGMI. Krafton Inc, as a responsible South Korean company that abides by the law, has put in place several measures to ensure compliance with all Indian laws,” the company said.

Larger picture: Krafton launched BGMI on July 2, 2021, for Android devices and on August 18 of that year for Apple’s iOS devices. BGMI surpassed 100 million registered users within a year before it was banned in 2022.

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ETtech Deals Digest: Indian startups raised $617 million this week

Startups garnered around $617 million in funding from 26 rounds this week. The figure was a significant improvement over the previous week, according to data provided by market intelligence firm Tracxn.

Between May 13 and 19, 2023, funding activity saw a 2.6% decline from the same period last year, when startups had mopped up $634 million across 54 rounds.

Sequentially, there was about a 601% surge in funding over the previous week, when startups raised just 88 million across 22 rounds.

Here are all the startups that raised funding this week

Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Megha Mishra in Mumbai and Gaurab Dasgupta in New Delhi. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.