 "Zomato mcap reaches Rs 2 trn, delivers Deepinder Goyal billionaire tag")
Zomato’s founder and chief executive officer, Deepinder Goyal (pictured), on Monday entered the billionaire club as the food tech company’s share price surged to a record high of Rs 232 during intraday trade, taking its market capitalisation (mcap) beyond the Rs 2 trillion mark.
At the close of the trading session, Zomato’s mcap stood at Rs 2.02 trillion, with a share costing Rs 229.10 (BSE). Currently, it is the only listed new-age company that has a market value of more than Rs 1 trillion.
The latest uptick in its share price came amid reports of the food delivery major and its rival Swiggy increasing their platform fees to Rs 6 in key markets like Bengaluru and Delhi. This marked an increase of 20 per cent from the Rs 5 that the two platforms were charging until now in these markets — a move that is expected to bolster their financial performance.
Zomato’s stock has witnessed a rise of almost 200 per cent from a low of Rs 76.50 per share in July last year.
Goyal has now become only the second entrepreneur from the listed new-age firms in India to join this coveted group, the first being Falguni Nayar, founder and CEO of FSN E-Commerce Ventures, which owns the beauty and fashion ecommerce platform Nykaa.
More From This Section
What sets Goyal apart from Nayar is his relatively modest stake in the company. Goyal, who is not a promoter, holds only 4.19 per cent stake in Zomato, while Nayar, along with her family, retains about 52.22 per cent in her company.
Goyal’s shareholding value has spiked to over Rs 8,000 crore. With a total of 36.95 crore shares, Goyal’s stake, at the current share price, is now valued at Rs 8,461.55 crore.
The surge in the company’s share price over the past year can be attributed to its improved performance, particularly its quick commerce business, Blinkit.
Following its Q4FY24 results, Zomato announced that Blinkit aims to double its store footprint to 1,000 by the end of FY25, up from 526 as on March 31, 2024. It had added 75 stores in the fourth quarter of FY24.
Blinkit has also outpaced the food delivery segment in terms of growth. The gross order value (GOV) of Blinkit doubled in Q4FY24 to Rs 4,027 crore from Rs 2,046 crore in Q4FY23; sequentially, the uptick was 13.7 per cent. In comparison, the food delivery business reported a GOV of Rs 8,439 crore, a 28 per cent year-on-year increase, although sequential growth was flat.