Zomato parent Eternal’s consolidated net profit for the first quarter of FY26 slid over 90% to INR 25 Cr from INR 253 in the same period of previous year as the company continued to make investments. Sequentially, the company’s profit declined 36% from INR 39 Cr.
The decline in profit came despite the company’s operating revenue surging over 70% to INR 7,167 Cr during the quarter under review from INR 4,206 Cr in the year-ago quarter. On a QoQ basis, Eternal’s top line increased 23% from INR 5,833 Cr.
Including other income of INR 354 Cr, the company’s total income for the period rose 69% YoY to INR 7,521 Cr. Meanwhile, its expenses surged to INR 7,433 Cr, marking a 77% YoY and 22% QoQ jump.
Minus the other income, the company would have reported a loss of about INR 330 Cr in the quarter. Eternal’s EBITDA declined 42% YoY to INR 172 Cr in the quarter.
Explaining the QoQ decline in the food delivery business, CEO Deepinder Goyal said, “Every year in Q1, margins get impacted (in both food delivery and quick commerce) because of lower availability of delivery partners due to festivals and adverse weather conditions (onset of summer and rains in different parts of the country). In the past, in the food delivery business, this pressure on margins in Q1s used to be offset by improvement in other areas; but now that margins have matured in this business, such fluctuations driven by seasonal factors are possible,” Eternal CEO Deepinder Goyal added.
Now, let’s take a detailed look at how the company’s key verticals – food delivery Zomato, quick commerce Blinkit, going-out ‘District’ – fared in the first three months of FY26.
Quick Commerce Becomes The Top Line Driver Of Eternal
Q1 FY26 was the first fiscal quarter where Eternal’s quick commerce arm Blinkit outpaced Eternal’s bread-and-butter food delivery segment in contribution to its top line. The quick commerce arm’s operating revenue for the quarter stood at INR 2,400 Cr, recording an over 2.5X growth from INR 942 Cr in Q1 FY25.
In the quarter, Blinkit’s loss stood at INR 42 Cr as against a profit of INR 43 Cr in Q1 FY25. However, on a QoQ basis, the segment’s loss reduced by 49% from INR 82 Cr in the previous quarter. Its adjusted EBITDA loss also reduced by 9% on a sequential basis to INR 162 Cr from INR 178 Cr in Q4 FY25.
Blinkit’s net order value (NOV) also zoomed past Zomato’s, rising 127% YoY and 25% QoQ to INR 9,203 Cr. The quick commerce arm’s average monthly transacting customers (MTC), grew 123% YoY to 1.7 Cr during the quarter.
Blinkit added 243 net new stores in Q1, taking its store count to 1,544. CEO Albinder Dhindsa said that Blinkit is on track to set up 2,000 stores by December 2025. Moving forth, Eternal expects the number of dark stores to reach 3,000. However, Dhindsa didn’t share a timeline for the same.
On the loss-making nature of the subsidiary, the CEO believes that the margins for the bottom line have “bottomed out”. “In fact, even the absolute losses should come down from hereon. But the margin improvement journey may not be linear and there could be some bumps along the way if the competitive intensity goes-up again for whatever reason,” he added.
(The story will be updated soon)
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