Despite an underwhelming growth in Q3 FY22, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal believes its growth trajectory to be “back on track” without “post-COVID ramifications” having an impact on its business.
Both the revenue from operations and the consolidated net loss of the online food delivery giant rose significantly in Q4 FY 2022. The net loss grew from ₹134.2 crores in Q4 FY21 to ₹359.7 crores in Q4 FY2022, while the revenue from operations clocked a growth of 75% from ₹692.4 crores in the corresponding quarter last year to ₹1211.8 crores in Q4 FY22.
For the entire fiscal year, the company’s consolidated net loss stands at ₹1222.5 crores, while the revenue from operations for the same period stands at ₹4192.4 crores.
The company’s adjusted revenue rose by 8% quarter-over-quarter and 67% year-over-year to reach ₹15.4 billion in the quarter, while it reported an EBITDA loss of ₹449.7 crores in the same quarter.
In a conversation, Zomato CFO Akshant Goyal said that the company’s free cash flow has been more than its adjusted EBITDA since its working capital is “usually negative” and “capex in our business is small.” There was an outflow of ₹2.2 crores in the quarter.
The almost meteoric rise in expenses is something that Zomato might want to look into – it is one of the reasons behind the increase in losses, according to experts. Zomato’s total expenses during Q4 FY 2022 rose from ₹885 crores in the corresponding quarter last year to ₹1701.7 crores (more than double) in the recently ended quarter.
Going forward, Zomato expects its adjusted revenue to grow at a rate that will reach double digits in the next quarter, along with a drop in adjusted EBITDA losses. This drop in losses is expected to be driven by improvement in a contribution margin of the “food delivery business and also operating leverage playing out as our revenue is growing faster than our fixed costs,” it said.
Additionally, its user base continued to grow as the online food delivery aggregator had 15.7 million average monthly transaction customers last quarter, an increase from the 15.3 million in the corresponding quarter last year. This growth also comes with a rise in its average monthly active food delivery restaurant partners (205,000 restaurant partners) and average monthly active delivery partners (316,000 partners), which are at an all-time high.
The platform also expanded its presence to over 300 new cities in the quarter, and a strong rise in order volumes accompanied by stability in the average order value put its gross order value at a record ₹5850 crores. It is a year-over-year growth of 77% and a quarter-over-quarter growth of 6%.
