Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal says company conserving cash than minority investments

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Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal says company conserving cash than minority investments

According to the earnings release and letter to shareholders, the CEO of the online food delivery firm Zomato Deepinder Goyal said that the company is focusing more on conserving cash than securing minority investments. Goyal said that we are aggressive about conserving cash. According to the letter, Zomato's Chief Financial Officer CFO Akshant Goyal said that the company has around $1.6 billion unrestricted cash at this point and that the capital needs are limited. Zomato CFO said that losses in the company's core food business are reducing rapidly and all minority equity investments are done.

In the last quarterly letter, he noted that we had given an upper bound of $400 million for quick commerce in the next two years CY 22 and CY 23. We are on plan to stick to this outer limit as of now. Goyal said, Just to be clear, we are not planning to make any new minority investments as part of the $400 million outer limit. Think of this as the max amount of losses we may need to fund in this period of time in the quick commerce business if and when we get into it. He also highlighted the investments made by Zomato in FY 22 Shiprocket and Grofers, now known as Blinkit Deepinder Goyal, which he exited with zero profit and or loss. He invested around $94,000 in Blinkit in 2015 and exited the investment in January this year.

Questions were also asked on media reports of a potential M&A between Zomato and Blinkit. Goyal said that the company continues to be bullish on the quick commerce sector and that Blinkit has grown well over the past six months.

He said, We continue to be bullish on quick commerce, especially given how synergic it is to our core food delivery business, and are excited with the progress that Blinkit has made in this space. There is a lot of low hanging fruit to drive growth and efficiency, and there is a lot to do as the business is in its early stages. Goyal said that Blinkit has grown well over the past six months and has also reduced its operating losses. We have committed to give them a short-term loan of up to $150 million to fund their short-term capital needs. There is nothing to share at this moment. The company reported a net loss of Rs 134 crore in the year-ago period. The consolidated revenue from operations went up 75 per cent to Rs 1,212 crore compared to Rs 692 crore in the year-ago period.