Zomato's ₹4,447cr Blinkit bet turned a ₹971cr loss into its first annual profit

In 2022 Zomato agreed to buy quick-commerce firm Blinkit (formerly Grofers) in a ₹4,447 crore all-stock deal that shareholders approved with 97% of votes. The price was a discount to Blinkit's earlier $1 billion unicorn valuation, and Blinkit was still losing heavily — its FY23 adjusted EBITDA loss was ₹1,016 crore.

Zomato's own food delivery business was barely breaking even, and the consolidated loss for FY23 was ₹971 crore. Deepinder Goyal kept the Blinkit team and CEO, added platform fees and ad monetization to food delivery, and expanded Blinkit's dark-store network from 377 stores in March 2023 to 526 a year later.

The curve flipped in FY24: Zomato posted its first annual net profit of ₹351 crore, Blinkit's adjusted EBITDA loss narrowed to ₹384 crore, and the business turned adjusted-EBITDA-positive in March 2024. In FY25 profit rose to ₹527 crore on revenue of ₹20,243 crore, with Blinkit revenue up 126% to ₹5,206 crore.

By Q4 FY26, Blinkit's adjusted EBITDA was positive at ₹37 crore with 2,243 stores, food delivery's adjusted EBITDA margin was 5.5% of net order value, and the group guided Blinkit to 60% NOV growth and a $1 billion adjusted EBITDA goal by FY29. The bet that looked like a distraction in 2022 had become the growth engine.

First annual profit: ₹351cr in FY24 after a ₹971cr FY23 loss; FY25 profit ₹527cr on ₹20,243cr revenue; Blinkit's adjusted EBITDA positive by Q4 FY26 with 2,243 stores.

Goyal kept the Blinkit team and CEO, betting on density instead of abandoning quick commerce when the market soured.

Food delivery reached profit through platform fees, higher take rates and ad monetization — not by cutting service.

Blinkit losses narrowed every year as stores grew from 377 to 526 to 2,243, the classic density path.

Transparent reporting let investors watch the loss shrink quarter by quarter.

Fund a losing business only while unit economics visibly improve: Zomato absorbed investor anger over Blinkit, cut food-delivery losses, and waited for density to make quick commerce profitable.

Zomato renamed itself Eternal in 2025 as quick commerce overtook food delivery in ambition. In Q4 FY26, net profit was ₹174 crore, revenue grew 196% year-on-year to ₹17,292 crore, and Blinkit posted ₹37 crore of adjusted EBITDA; management guided Blinkit to a 60% CAGR in net order value and a $1 billion adjusted EBITDA goal for FY29, saying annual NOV would double to $20 billion in under two years. Food delivery's adjusted EBITDA margin reached 5.5% of NOV, and analysts who had questioned the 2022 deal began rating Blinkit as the group's main growth engine.