Zomato headed for profitability; sees 10x growth in 5 yrs creating thousands of jobs: CEO

India's largest restaurant search and food delivery platform Zomato is on the verge of cracking its maiden profits on the back of rapid expansion into newer cities that has brought more business to both established outlets and 'dark kitchens', creating thousands of jobs, its founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said.

The company on Saturday laid off 540 employees at its head office in Gurugram across its customer, merchant and delivery partner support teams, but Goyal insists Zomato is creating more jobs than ever before.

Starting off in 2008 by scanning and putting restaurant menus online, Zomato has expanded to 24 countries and services 10,000 cities globally, he told PTI.

In India, it serves 25 million customers in over 500 cities in India and is valued by analysts at between USD 3.6 billion and USD 4.5 billion, he said.

It is backed by Silicon Valley venture fund Sequoia Capital, Singapore government's Temasek Holdings and Indian e-commerce player Info Edge.

Zomato, he said, delivers orders from 250,000 restaurants and hundreds of 'dark kitchens' where restaurant food is cooked, but no restaurant actually exists.

Free from the consumer-facing elements required in their bricks-and-mortar parent restaurants -- chairs, tables, toilets, sheer space -- these kitchens exist purely to serve the growing food-delivery market. Orders come in, meals are cooked and Zomato delivery boys whisk them immediately away on bikes.

"Our losses per month have come down by 50 per cent in the last three months. We are still investing heavily in the food delivery business which has grown 6x in the last year, and is now present in more than 500 cities," Goyal said.

The company can "make a profit any month" it wants but right now is focused on expanding the food delivery business, he said. "We touch 25 million customers every week, generate 0.5 million jobs directly, indirectly. We are all set for 10x growth in 5 years."