Indian food company Zomato has been posting more than triple the losses from a year ago in its first quarterly earnings report, a Bloomberg report says.
Zomato was the first of the big Indian startups to go public.
See also: Zomato Shares Skyrocket In India’s Stock Market Debut
The company reported a net loss of $48 million in the quarter to the end of June, an increase from the same time last year.
The company has been spending big to get a bigger share of the food delivery business, and its dining out business has taken a hit due to COVID-19. This comes amid a backdrop in India where food delivery economics have been a challenge, with Zomato saying its decline in the recent quarter was attributable to the greater business expenses because of the lockdown. This has led the company, along with prime rival Swiggy, to seek other ways to get money.
Zomato, to that end, has been looking into doing more grocery delivery.
Zomato’s public debut came as India faced a strong demand for food delivery services, with the company stocks’ price almost doubling since its debut — and while they’ve since fallen, they’re still around 65 percent higher than the issue price.
And the company’s public debut has come after a resounding flop for similar companies from other countries, with the U.K.-based Deliveroo not doing well on its debut, though it has since been doing better.
Other Indian companies plan to list in the coming months, including Ant Group-backed Paytm and Walmart-backed Flipkart.
Zomato had also recently announced the launch of a fintech payments service.
For more, see: India’s Delivery App Zomato To Launch Payments Service
The feature is reported to include things like payment aggregator and gateway services, and would be able to handle all types of payment services including eWallets, mobile wallets, cash, cards and more.
There would also be a payment and settlement system, and one for prepaid and post-paid tools.
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