Editor’s Note:

As we bid adieu to 2025, for the next few weeks, The Outline by Inc42 will look back at the hits and misses of India’s top tech startups and trends this year. Here’s the first special edition as part of our 2025 In Review series.

Deepinder Goyal was at his philosophical best when he announced the rebranding of Zomato to Eternal. “Eternal is a powerful name and, to be honest, it scares me to my core. It is a tall order to live up to. Because ‘Eternal’ carries both a promise and paradox,” he wrote to shareholders in February.

The chief executive’s philosophical self was known, but the unknown and unseen in India’s public markets was the decision of a listed company rebranding itself entirely – not just its logo or tagline – but its legal name and the exchange tickers. Zomato Limited became Eternal Limited, and the scrip changed accordingly.

This was more than a cosmetic overhaul – it was rather a declaration of intent. For Goyal, the Zomato identity had become too narrow, too synonymous with a single business line, and too limiting for the company’s ambitions. Eternal, in contrast, represents a portfolio of businesses, comprising the old food delivery engine, the fast-scaling quick commerce venture Blinkit and the going-out ecosystem bundled under District.

The year 2025 was the acid test to review how grounded the shift has been with the business fundamentals. As the year winds down, a look back shows a company aggressively trying to fire on three cylinders, instead of relying on just the core business. The company’s market capitalisation scaled 48% during the year to INR 2.87 Lakh Cr ($31.8 Bn).

But, was the new identity in sync with the company’s evolution this year? Let’s dig deep into the dynamics of the three businesses.

Blinkit is the clearest justification for why Zomato needed to become Eternal. The acquisition of Grofers two years back, followed by rebranding to Blinkit, was considered overpriced, unnecessary, and strategically confusing. The stock slumped 20% after the deal, and analysts widely questioned the logic of entering quick commerce at scale.

By FY25, Blinkit not only vindicated the acquisition, it fundamentally reshaped Etnernal’s growth trajectory. “We thought we would rename the company to Eternal the day something beyond Zomato became a significant driver of our future. Today, with Blinkit, I feel we are there,” Goyal wrote in the letter.

The FY25 numbers backed his sentiment. Blinkit’s revenue surged 600% in less than a year — from INR 1,399 Cr in Q3 FY25 toINR 9,891 Cr in Q2 FY26. According to analysts, the revenue surge was the result of the company’s rapid shift towards an inventory-led model.

In Q1 FY26, Blinkit reported INR 2,400 Cr in adjusted operating revenue. By Q2, the metric jumped threefold, with 80% coming from inventory-led operations. This approach, initially expensive and margin dilutive, began yielding scale efficiencies.

Rapid dark store expansion and Blinkit’s moat in quick commerce deepened the losses, but simultaneously improved its profitability metrics. The dark store count crossed the 1,000 mark by Q3 FY25 and remained on track to reach 2,100 by the end of FY26. The company reportedly targets 3,000 dark stores by March 2027.

Despite the burn, the adjusted EBITDA margin loss improved materially, from 4.3% in Q3 FY25 to 1.3% in Q2 FY26, reviving from a 381% deepening in EBITDA losses in Q1 when Blinkit was on an expansion overdrive. The control over the EBITDA margin loss is the strongest financial indicator that Blinkit is moving towards sustainable unit economics while scaling its operations.

A symbolic milestone arrived when Blinkit’s net order value (NOV) surpassed Zomato’s food delivery NOV for a full quarter in Q1 FY26, and the momentum sustained in Q2 – something Goyal hinted at last year.

As of Q2 FY26, Blinkit’s operating revenue contributes more than 70% of Eternal’s total operating revenue. The entity enjoys a clear lead and remains Eternal’s strongest argument for becoming a giant beyond food deliveries.

Eternal’s tale of 2025 is led by quick commerce, yet it relies on the legacy food delivery business for its financials. Blinkit powered exponential growth, but Zomato gave it stability, profitability, and predictable cash flow.

Zomato saw its EBITDA rise firmly from INR 423 Cr in Q3 of FY25 to INR 428 Cr in Q2 FY26. Adjusted revenue saw modest growth, increasing 3% from INR 2,413 Cr to INR 2,485 Cr over the same period. The muted top-line performance reflects a broader slowdown in the sector, which Swiggy also cited in its filings. Amid this, Zomato Food Delivery CEO Rakesh Ranjan stepped down.

Customer acquisition, however, remained strong. Its monthly transacting users increased from 20.5 Mn in Q3 of FY25 to 24.1 Mn in Q2 FY26, indicating that the category remains stable even though the discretionary frequency plateaued.

On the strategic front, Eternal showed discipline by winding down unscalable verticals such as Zomato Quick and Zomato Everyday. These verticals lacked sufficient demand momentum and did not justify long-term investments. The company also laid off 500-600 delivery executives.

The competitive equation, however, evolved. A recent Nuvama Institutional Equities report noted that Swiggy’s food delivery business has outpaced Zomato’s for four straight quarters while also showing better profitability. Swiggy’s ‘quick food’ model, now serving over 700 cities and contributing 10-12% to its gross order value, has firmed up its position. Zomato, by contrast, scaled back similar offerings for restaurant partners, prioritising marketplace simplicity over experimentation.

The entry of Rapido into the food delivery space through Ownly has introduced a new variable. Rapido’s penetration in tier II and tier III markets, supported by its extensive ride-hailing network, could dilute the long-standing duopoly of Swiggy and Zomato over the medium term.

The takeaway is clear: food delivery is stable and profitable, but no longer the defining force for Eternal’s valuation. It is the engine that keeps the machine running, but not the engine that can propel the company into its next phase.

If Blinkit defines why Zomato became Eternal, District reflects what Eternal aspires to be. The vertical consolidates all ‘going out’ experiences, such as events, movies, restaurant reservations, and sports tickets. It is built around Eternal’s INR 2,048 Cr acquisition of Paytm Insider, valued at 6-7 times its FY24 revenue.

India’s live events and entertainment economy is accelerating rapidly. The INR 20,800 Cr market for live events is likely to double by 2030, according to a white paper, India’s Live Events Economy: A Strategic Growth Imperative, released earlier this year at the WAVES-2025 summit. Eternal sees this as the natural third pillar of its consumer ecosystem, comprising eating (Zomato), shopping (Blinkit), and going out (District).

But, translating this thesis into financial performance proved harder. District saw its revenue for Q2 of FY26 rise 23% on-year to INR 189 Cr, but it fell 9% sequentially, while losses deepened to INR 57 Cr from a profit of INR 18 Cr, making a stark reversal for a business once thought to be Eternal’s next growth engine.

But that didn’t deter Eternal from pushing for aggressive growth in District. CFO Akshant Goyal claimed that the losses were a part of a controlled investment cycle, rather than a setback. User metrics, visitor growth of 32% on-year and a rise in active user base encouraged the parent to double down on the business. Eternal launched District Stores to enter the offline retail space and took the District platform to the UAE.

Monetisation, however, remained inconsistent. Discovery platforms often take years to mature, and District faces the challenge of building both supply density and demand frequency in a category where revenue spikes around events but softens in between. Not to forget, the company is directly racing with a decade-old company in the space – Book My Show.

Eternal’s confidence suggests a long-term commitment, but near-term financial volatility will continue.

Goyal rechristened his brainchild Zomato to represent a bigger portfolio of businesses and take the company to new highs. At the end of 2025, Blinkit sparked brightest out of the three wings, while Zomato retained a steady glow and District seemed rather dimmed.

Quick commerce is not just Eternal’s fastest-growing vertical, it is the only business showing breakout scale, improving unit economics, and decisive market leadership. Blinkit alone validates the company’s claim that Eternal is “more than Zomato”.

The same cannot be said for the legacy food delivery business. Profitable and operationally disciplined, yet Zomato is no longer a growth engine. Revenue expansion has slowed down to low single digits, competitive pressure from Swiggy has intensified, and a new challenger in Rapido threatens to erode the long-running duopoly. Food delivery remains Eternal’s backbone, but it’s time to strengthen, not merely stabilise it. Without renewed growth or category innovation, the vertical could become a utility, reliable but strategically underwhelming.

District, meanwhile, exposes the speculative side of Eternal’s ambition. Despite a favourable macro landscape and aggressive expansion, the business has failed to achieve financial consistency. Losses have deepened, revenue remained volatile, and monetisation stayed wobbly. Eternal may view District as its long-term lifestyle play, but today it is a capital-intensive experiment with unproven returns.

The head of India’s biggest quick commerce player sees the sector is hurtling towards a shakeout as rivals are fast running out of cash, but Blinkit will thrive and continue its expansion, Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa said in an interview. Analysts at Bernstein Societe Generale Group last month said Blinkit has emerged as the long-term frontrunner, citing execution, strong unit economics and more than $2 Bn in cash.

Eternal’s transformation rests overwhelmingly on a single success. Blinkit is scaling, profitable adjacency remains elusive, and diversification is still incomplete. The company may have outgrown the Zomato brand in vision, but it hasn’t yet outgrown it in performance.

The name Eternal indicates ambition. The result hints at the need for more work to be done to secure the ambition.

Edited By Kumar Chatterjee

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