Zomato claims to break-even in India operations

Leading online restaurant booking and food ordering application (app) firm Zomato on Monday claimed achieving break-even or operating profit in its business across India and five countries in South East Asia and the Gulf region.

Other countries are Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the Gulf and Indonesia and Philippines in South East Asia.

The start-up firm, however, did not disclose to the media at what revenue the break-even was achieved or other operational numbers.

"We have doubled our revenue year-on-year (YoY) over the last few years to post growth numbers this year (fiscal) as our business turned profitable in six of the 18 markets we operate," Zomato founder and chief executive Deepinder Goyal said in a statement here.

The company plans to deploy its profits in operations to fuel growth and compete harder to stay ahead of rivals.

"We don't depend on external funds to experiment or spend on new initiatives in India and other markets," Zomato co-founder Pankaj Chaddah said in the statement.

Chaddah has been leading Zomato's food ordering vertical since November 2015 which has witnessed four-fold growth in the past three months.

"2015 has been a challenging year for food-tech and the market has seen its fair share of correction in recent months," said Sequoia Capital India Advisors managing director Mohit Bhatnagar in the statement.