Zomato set for 10x growth in 5 years; create more jobs: CEO Deepinder Goyal

Zomato is on the verge of cracking its maiden profits said founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal. Goyal also said that they are all set to grow 10x in the next five years. Zomato's profits have come on the back of its rapid expansion into new cities that has not only brought in more business to establidhed outlets and 'dark kitchens' but has also created thousands of jobs.

The company can "make a profit any month" it wants but right now is focused on expanding the food delivery business, he said. "We touch 25 million customers every week, generate 0.5 million jobs directly, indirectly. We are all set for 10x growth in 5 years," said Goyal. "Our losses per month have come down by 50 per cent in the last three months. We are still investing heavily in the food delivery business which has grown 6x in the last year, and is now present in more than 500 cities," he added.

Goyal said that Zomato delivers orders from around 250,000 restaurants and hundreds of 'dark kitchens' where restaurant food is cooked but no restaurant exists. Besides bringing business to restaurants and 'dark kitchens', most of which do not have their own delivery service, Zomato is also creating direct employment through riders, he said.

On Thursday, Goyal had tweeted that its delivery partners' monthly income crossed Rs 200 crore for the first time, with the number of delivery partners rising to 2.3 lakh this month against 74,000 in September 2018. "Milestone alert: Our delivery partners' monthly income has crossed Rs 200 crore for the first time. And we have just hit 230,000 delivery partners in India," he had tweeted, adding that the company aims to add 10,000 new jobs in September alone as a "result of direct employment and contracts with Zomato".

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That tweet came before the company laid off around 540 employees on Saturday from its head office in Gurugram. The company said these lay-offs were due to improvement in its technology interface across functions leading to reduction in support-related queries, thereby making several roles redundant.

Goyal, however, said the company was still hiring people for its technology, product and data sciences teams. Zomato has hired over 1,200 people in non-delivery teams and another 400 off-rolls positions besides creating jobs for hundreds of thousands of delivery partners.

The platform started off in 2008 and has expanded to 24 countries so far. It services 10,000 cities globally, Goyal mentioned. In India, it serves 25 million customers in over 500 cities and is valued by analysts at between $3.6 billion and $4.5 billion, he said.

Zomato is backed by Silicon Valley venture fund Sequoia Capital, Singapore government's Temasek Holdings and Indian e-commerce player Info Edge. The company saw its revenue shoot up to $206 million in 2018-19 from $68 million in the previous year, primarily driven by its food delivery vertical, according to the company's annual report.

It spent $500 million during FY19, a six-fold jump from the $80 million spending in the previous year. Its losses stood at about $294 million in the fiscal.

(With PTI inputs)

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