People all around the world may connect and come together over Food. Food availability becomes a key consideration since people worldwide are anxious to taste a variety of cuisines and get their hands on delicious food and delicacies. With the development of technology, achieving this component has gotten simpler. With all the online meal delivery services making their way into our everyday lives, having easy access to our favourite foods has become a piece of cake.

You don’t feel like stepping outside to get food today, do you? That’s not a problem anymore. Not now, when food delivery services can bring your meals right to your door with only a few clicks. Zomato is one such meal delivery service.

Zomato

Zomato, established in 2008, is a well-known website for finding restaurants, ordering meals online, and booking restaurant reservations. Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, both IIT grads who had previously worked for Bain & Co in New Delhi before forming Zomato with its headquarters in Gurgaon, developed the platform (Gurugram). With an advantage for customers and restaurants, Zomato has become a market leader in India for finding restaurants and placing orders.

Zomato, which has a strict review system, makes it possible for foodies to find their area’s top meals and eateries. As of August 2021, Zomato’s app has over 25K restaurant partners and over 1.5 million eateries on its website.

Popular Zomato Initiatives

Hyperpure Initiative – The corporation started the Hyperpure project to concentrate on the food quality offered to its subscribers. This effort links ethical local farmers and ethical restaurateurs, cutting out the usual intermediaries and guaranteeing the purity of the ingredients in the cuisine being served. In Q2 FY22, Hyperpure’s revenue increased by 49% QoQ to Rs 1.1 billion. In Q2 FY22, Hyperpure, currently present in 8 cities, delivered food to more than 12,000 restaurants on average.

Zomato Pro Initiative – Zomato recently introduced its Zomato Gold project, which will now be known as Zomato Pro as of August 1, 2020. Customers may enjoy benefits like free food and beverages when ordering with partner restaurants and bars and the advantage of priority delivery on Zomato and several other advanced offerings with this premium service.

Zomato Pro Plus – When ordering meals via Zomato, Zomato Pro Plus offers an all-inclusive membership package with no delivery or surge cost. It is an invite-only upgrade to Zomato Pro. Although the firm hasn’t specified the requirements for the Zomato Pro Plus membership, users who often use the app to order meals or who already have a Pro membership may be able to access it.

The operators of the Cloud Kitchen Initiative- In collaboration with Loyal Hospitality, organise, package, and distribute meals without providing any dine-in service to end consumers. The best restaurants and chefs from all across India can be found in Zomaland, a funfair with exciting rides and musical performances by well-known artists. The platform also states that the event would include kid-friendly activities like games, picture booths, street acts, and a play area.

Feeding India Initiative – In July 2019, Zomato purchased Feeding India, an organization that aims to provide food to at least 100 million disadvantaged individuals each month. The group has been working to feed people throughout the COVID19 crisis, especially the population of migrant and daily wage workers. In late March 2020, as a result, the “Feed the Daily Wagers” campaign was established.

The Business Model of Zomato

Zomato’s featured adverts on its portal and the commissions it charged to the eateries had previously been its major sources of income. The site uses a commission-based revenue model to operate.

Zomato stated in its FY19 financial report that it no longer views advertising as its sole source of income. The three key pillars of delivery, dining out, and sustainability are now the foundation of how food delivery companies see their business.

How it all began

It all started when Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, who was based out of their office in New Delhi, came across several individuals who had been forced to wait for a considerable amount of time to glance at the menu card. Upon observing this, the two had the thought to provide a remedy, which resulted in the creation of “Foodiebay.”

Initially beginning in Delhi, they posted soft copies of menu cards on their website, which led to adoption by all office staff and helped users save time. Also, this increased the number of visitors to their website, which allowed it to grow and become available to everyone in the city. Also, their service was extended to locations in Kolkata and Mumbai.

Foodiebay’s creators decided to redesign it and go global as its user base and the growth rate increased tremendously, giving rise to Zomato as we know it today. Foodiebay was officially renamed Zomato in the year 2010.

Pankaj Chaddah left Zomato in March 2018. On September 14, 2021, Gaurav Gupta, who joined the company as COO and Global Head of Zomato’s Advertising Sales before being elevated to platform Co-Founder, announced his resignation. Gaurav oversaw the food-tech company’s supply.

Period Leave Policies at Zomato

A recent policy change made by the Zomato platform has caused public outrage. This is the “period leave” policy of the platform. This policy, which is unusual among major international corporations, allows transgender employees to take up to 10 days of annual period leave.

This approach has been hailed as a daring attempt to break the legendary taboo around periods in the Indian community, where the subject is still handled with extreme sensitivity.

There shouldn’t be any stigma or guilt associated with requesting a leave of absence. You should feel free to inform folks on internal groups or through emails that you are taking the day off for your period. – Deepinder Goyal, the founder and CEO of Zomato

The corporation made it clear that through an HR site, employees may appeal for paid time off. A sexual harassment team will be put in place if any workers experience harassment due to taking this vacation.

The Success Story of Zomato

After starting in 2010, Zomato grew tremendously by dominating the Delhi NCR market and expanding to other Indian cities such as Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad.

The introduction of Zomato’s mobile app has also significantly contributed to the growth of the business.

By 2012, Zomato had completely launched its international operations in nations including the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Qatar.

In 2013, the platform’s lengthy growth history also saw the addition of Turkey, Brazil, and New Zealand.

The site claimed to be operating economically in all 24 countries in 2017 and implementing a zero-commission strategy. The business said that revenue increased by 81% during this specific year.

According to the Economic Times, Zomato purchased the Indian operations of Uber Eats, the food delivery service operated by Uber, in the beginning of 2020 for around $350 million (Rs 2,485 crore).

According to the Economic Times, Zomato’s revenue for the fiscal year that concluded on March 31, 2020, more than quadrupled to $394 million.

Zomato’s combined net loss increased for the three months ending September 30, 2021, to Rs 435 crore ($59 million). The business posted a combined net loss of Rs 230 crore ($30 million) during the same period last year. Compared to Q2FY21, the total income from operations increased by 140% to Rs 1,024 crore ($136 million). (Source)

Financed Recently by Zomato

When Sanjeev Bikhchandani of Naukri.com put around $1 million into the website through Info Edge, Zomato’s fundraising history began (India).

Zomato’s continuing Series-J fundraising included a $103 million investment from New York-based investment company Tiger Global Management in September 2020.

Zomato secured $52 million from US-based Kora Investments in October 2020.

Zomato finished its main fundraising round in December for $660 million, giving the platform a $3.9 billion value.

By the end of February 2021, Zomato concluded a $250 million investment round spearheaded by current investors Tiger Global, Kora, and Fidelity.

Zomato raised USD 1.26 billion via an initial public offering on July 23, 2021. 38 times the issue was oversubscribed.

Conclusion

Zomato has come a long way from being a restaurant search and discovery website to a well-known and acclaimed online meal delivery platform. It will be interesting to see how the business develops and strengthens its operations through effective and unique ideas and strategies.