#MCTech3 ??Top tech and startup news this evening

Breaking: Karthik Gurumurthy, SVP, at Swiggy is leaving about seven months after returning from a sabbatical.

• He’s starting his own venture, a chain of physical stores that will be similar to what Aldi does, sources told us.

One quick thing: Delhi chokes as thick haze engulfs the capital

In today’s newsletter:?

• Zomato on a hat-trick, posts profit again?
• India calls for global consensus on AI?
• Why Apple and SAP are bullish on India?

Zomato on a hat-trick, posts profit again

If you thought that it was just the Indian cricket team's pace attack that was adept at creating hat-trick chances, Zomato has now entered the fray.

DRIVING THE NEWS

Zomato is the black for the second quarter in a row , reporting a net profit of Rs 36 crore for the September quarter.?

• Its revenue grew 71% to Rs 2,848 crore at a time when the wider e-commerce sector was facing inflation pressure

During the same quarter last year, Zomato had posted a net loss of Rs 302 crore with revenues of Rs 1,661 crore.

GOLDEN LOYALTY

For the first time, Zomato has shared some granular details about its Gold loyalty programme, which was relaunched earlier this year after a brief hiatus.

• Almost 40% of Zomato's food delivery sales come from Gold members
• The number of Gold members increased from 1.8 million in the March quarter to 3.8 million in the September quarter.

Most importantly, Zomato revealed that Gold orders are less profitable than regular orders due to lower delivery charges, longer delivery distances, and no-delay guarantees for members.

BLINKIT’S MILESTONE

Blinkit, Zomato’s quick-commerce arm, turned contribution positive for the first time ever during the September quarter.

• What this means is that Blinkit's dark stores, from which grocery deliveries are made, have gone past break even on an average

• Contribution margin improved to 1.3% of total sales in the September quarter, up from -7.3% in the year-ago period

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal re-iterated that Blinkit is expected to become a bigger business, and profit pool, than food delivery over the long term.

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