{"id":9052,"date":"2023-03-21T18:27:31","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T12:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icoderzsolutions.com\/blog\/?p=9052"},"modified":"2026-10-02T15:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T10:18:16","slug":"zomato-business-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icoderzsolutions.com\/blog\/zomato-business-model\/","title":{"rendered":"Zomato Business Model: How Zomato Works & Makes Money"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Short answer:<\/strong> Zomato runs a three-sided marketplace that connects customers, restaurants and delivery partners. It makes money mainly from restaurant service fees (commissions), customer delivery and platform fees, and advertising, with subscriptions like Gold adding repeat usage. Since 2025, Zomato is the food-delivery business of Eternal Limited, which also owns Blinkit, District and Hyperpure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zomato at a Glance<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Metric<\/strong><\/td>Value<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Founded<\/td>2008 as Foodiebay, by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah; renamed Zomato in 2010<\/td><\/tr>
Business type<\/td>Food-delivery marketplace (customers, restaurants, delivery partners)<\/td><\/tr>
Parent company<\/td>Eternal Limited (formerly Zomato Limited)<\/td><\/tr>
Net order value (Q1 FY27)<\/td>\u20b910,769 crore, up 20.1% year on year<\/td><\/tr>
Adjusted EBITDA (Q1 FY27)<\/td>\u20b9606 crore, about 5.6% of NOV<\/td><\/tr>
Average monthly transacting customers (Q1 FY27)<\/td>27.2 million<\/td><\/tr>
Active restaurant partners (Q1 FY27)<\/td>About 3.28 lakh (328,000)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: Eternal Q1 FY27 shareholder disclosures as reported by YourStory, Business Standard and Inc42. See the sources list at the end.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Zomato and How Did It Start?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Zomato<\/a> is an Indian restaurant-discovery and food-delivery platform. Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, both IIT graduates, started it in July 2008 as Foodiebay. The idea came from a simple problem: colleagues struggled with paper menus when ordering food, so the founders put restaurant menus online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company renamed itself Zomato in 2010, partly to avoid confusion with eBay. It became Delhi’s leading dining directory within months and then expanded to other Indian cities and, from 2012, to international markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zomato timeline<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Year<\/strong><\/td>Milestone<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
2008<\/td>Foodiebay launched as an online restaurant menu directory<\/td><\/tr>
2010<\/td>Renamed Zomato<\/td><\/tr>
2012 onward<\/td>Expanded into international markets such as the UAE, UK, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Brazil<\/td><\/tr>
2015<\/td>Acquired Urbanspoon and pushed deeper into food delivery<\/td><\/tr>
2020<\/td>Acquired Uber Eats India<\/td><\/tr>
2021<\/td>Listed on NSE and BSE through an IPO of about \u20b99,375 crore (roughly $1.26 billion)<\/td><\/tr>
2022<\/td>Acquired Blinkit (formerly Grofers) in an all-stock deal<\/td><\/tr>
2025<\/td>Parent company renamed Eternal Limited<\/td><\/tr>
2026<\/td>Albinder Dhindsa, formerly Blinkit’s CEO, took over as Eternal’s Group CEO<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Zomato also tested ultra-fast food concepts such as Zomato Instant and Zomato Everyday. These were wound down or scaled back as the company focused on sustainable unit economics in food delivery and on quick commerce through Blinkit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funding and Growth Milestones<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Date<\/strong><\/td>Event<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
November 2013<\/td>About $37 million from Sequoia Capital and Info Edge<\/td><\/tr>
November 2014<\/td>About $60 million from Vy Capital, Info Edge and Sequoia Capital<\/td><\/tr>
September 2015<\/td>$60 million from Temasek and Vy Capital<\/td><\/tr>
2018<\/td>About $210 million from Ant Financial, an Alibaba affiliate<\/td><\/tr>
July 2021<\/td>IPO on NSE and BSE<\/td><\/tr>
August 2022<\/td>Blinkit acquisition completed in an all-stock deal<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Info Edge was the earliest major backer, with Ant Financial, Vy Capital, Temasek and others joining over time. For the latest filings, see Eternal’s investor relations page<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Zomato Works<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Zomato’s food-delivery platform follows one repeatable flow:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Discovery:<\/strong> A customer searches by location, cuisine, price, ratings or reviews.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Ordering:<\/strong> The customer picks dishes from a restaurant menu and checks out in the app.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Payment:<\/strong> The platform processes the payment for the whole order.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Preparation:<\/strong> The restaurant receives the order and prepares it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Delivery:<\/strong> The platform assigns a delivery partner, who picks up the food and delivers it, with live tracking for the customer.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Support and feedback:<\/strong> The customer can contact support and rate the restaurant and delivery.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Delivery partners are best understood as a network of independent, third-party service providers, not a company-owned fleet. Zomato reports a network of roughly 500,000 or more delivery partners. If you are planning a similar flow for your own business, our food delivery app development<\/a> team builds the customer, restaurant and delivery apps together with the admin panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How Does Zomato Make Money? (Revenue Model)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Zomato does not rely on one income source. Its food-delivery marketplace earns money from both sides of the transaction, plus advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    #<\/strong><\/td>Revenue stream<\/strong><\/td>Who pays<\/strong><\/td>How it works<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
    1<\/td>Restaurant service fees (commissions)<\/td>Restaurants<\/td>A percentage of order value for demand generation, ordering technology and logistics facilitation. Rates vary by contract.<\/td><\/tr>
    2<\/td>Customer delivery fees<\/td>Customers<\/td>Depends on order value, distance, demand, promotions and membership benefits.<\/td><\/tr>
    3<\/td>Platform \/ convenience fees<\/td>Customers<\/td>A small per-order charge. Amounts change over time, so treat any fixed figure with caution.<\/td><\/tr>
    4<\/td>Advertising and sponsored listings<\/td>Restaurants and brands<\/td>Paid visibility through sponsored listings, promoted placements and campaigns.<\/td><\/tr>
    5<\/td>Subscriptions and loyalty (Gold)<\/td>Customers<\/td>A recurring fee for delivery and discount benefits that raises order frequency.<\/td><\/tr>
    6<\/td>Restaurant services and tools<\/td>Restaurants<\/td>Marketing, analytics and operations tools built around restaurant partners.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Eternal reports food-delivery revenue, NOV and adjusted EBITDA as headline numbers rather than a clean split by stream, so exact percentages for each stream are not public. For a deeper look at how fees and ads fit together, see Inc42’s analysis of Zomato’s commissions, platform fees and ad revenue<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Restaurant service fees (commissions)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    This is the core of the marketplace. Restaurants pay for access to demand, digital ordering and delivery facilitation. Zomato’s restaurant-partner terms call it a service fee<\/em>, formerly known as commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. Customer delivery fees and platform fees<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Customers pay for convenience. Delivery charges help offset last-mile costs, while platform fees monetize each transaction beyond the restaurant-side fee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. Advertising and sponsored listings<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Millions of users search Zomato before deciding what to order. Restaurants pay to rank higher or appear in promoted slots. Advertising is attractive because it monetizes existing traffic without needing a matching rise in delivery costs per order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4. Subscriptions and loyalty<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Programs such as Zomato Gold give customers delivery and discount benefits. For Zomato, they improve retention, order frequency and customer lifetime value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    GOV vs NOV vs Revenue: What’s the Difference?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Three terms are often mixed up when people analyze Zomato:<\/p>\n\n\n\n