New Delhi, May 19 (IANS): Online food platform Zomato on Friday said that its consolidated net loss narrowed to about Rs 188 crore for the quarter ended March 31, from Rs 360 crore from the year-ago quarter, and from Rs 345 crore from last quarter.

The company reported consolidated revenue at Rs 2,056 crore, a 70 per cent jump from Rs 1,211.8 crore in the year-ago period.

In FY23, Zomato's loss went down to Rs 971 crore from Rs 1,209 crore a year ago as revenue increased around 70 per cent to Rs 7,079 crore.

"In food delivery, over the last five quarters, we have improved our margins meaningfully while further strengthening our market position. We will continue with the same mindset as we look to further expand the Adjusted EBITDA margin (from the current 1.2 per cent) to our stated goal of +4-5 per cent of GOV," said Deepinder Goyal, Zomato Founder and CEO.

Meanwhile, Zomato's arch rival Swiggy declared on Thursday that its food delivery business has become profitable.

Zomato now aims to get to positive adjusted EBITDA (and also profit after tax) on a consolidated basis (including quick commerce) within the next four quarters.

"On the quick commerce side, while there is still a long way to go in terms of margin improvement, we are pleased with the outcomes so far in a short period of time. In the month of March 2023, more than 65 per cent of the GOV was from Contribution positive stores," said Goyal.

Regarding its quick delivery service Blinkit, contribution margins improved despite a seasonal drop in average order value (AOV).

The AOV was Rs 522 in Q4 in FY23 as compared to Rs 553 in Q3 FY23.

"We have learnt that the AOV in this business will continue to swing up and down in the near to mid-term due to multiple (mainly seasonal) factors. For example, AOVs will go down when there is a good harvest of vegetables (which leads to lower prices for F&V)," said Blinkit Founder and CEO Albinder Dhindsa.

"Over time, as we get scale, we hope to be able to predict such swings better and mitigate the impact of these swings on our margins. We expect the AOV to increase QoQ in the current quarter (Q1FY24)," Dhindsa added.