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The quick commerce sector in India is burning approximately Rs 5,000 crore in cash each quarter, with Zomato-owned Blinkit accounting for 2-3% of the amount, the Gurugram-based company’s founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal told ET. He underscored that at Blinkit, the focus is on sustaining growth while ensuring discipline in how the company invests its cash.
“We think the total burn for all companies in quick commerce is around Rs 5,000 crore per quarter, conservatively speaking. Substantially more than half of this is by Zepto…compared to this, we’re burning very low numbers. Last quarter, Blinkit burned around Rs 35 crore per month on an average,” Goyal said.
Earlier industry reports said that players in the quick commerce space were burning around Rs 1,500 crore every month. While Blinkit’s contribution to the industry’s cash burn is 2-3%, the company’s market share is 40-45%, Goyal pointed out. Despite the high cash burn and increased competition in the 10-minute delivery space, Goyal said that Blinkit is focused on its own business.
“They (Zepto) have burned Rs 2,200-2,300 crore last quarter, and we have burned 4% of that but still gained market share, so how does it matter? We’ll just do the right thing for the business,” Goyal said. “We don’t engage in deep discounting, and our execution has been good… and we have to make sure our growth rate stays intact. The discipline with which we invest our cash should also stay intact. That's the focus,” Goyal added.
A Citi Research report in February pegged Blinkit’s market share at 41% and Swiggy Instamart’s share at 23%. It said that Zepto might be at par or higher than Instamart in quick commerce market share.
The only independent player in the buzzy quick commerce, Zepto, has raised more than $1.3 billion over the past year and plans to go public in 2025.
It has challenged Blinkit and Swiggy’s Instamart, gaining the top spot in terms of monthly active users in January, as per a report by brokerage firm BofA Research. Others in the segment include Walmart-owned Flipkart Minutes, Tata-backed Bigbasket and Amazon.
The competitive intensity is impacting Blinkit, which reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) loss of Rs 103 crore in the October-December period against Rs 8 crore in the July-September quarter.
Earlier, Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa had said that much of its cash burn was on account of expansion. The company crossed the 1,000 dark store count a quarter ahead of schedule as it spent aggressively on expanding its footprint while also advancing the timeline of having 2,000 dark stores on its network by a year to December 2025.
Following Zomato's reporting a decline in profits for the October-December quarter on account of increased cash burn by Blinkit, the company’s stock price has also slipped. This has happened in the backdrop of a broader correction in the equity markets.
Zomato’s share price has fallen over 20% since January 1. On Monday, it ended trading at Rs 222.05 on the BSE, up 0.1%.
(Courtesy: Economic Times)
