Zomato’s head of new businesses Rahul Ganjoo resigns

Zomato’s new initiatives head and former food delivery chief Rahul Ganjoo has resigned from the company, BSE filings obtained by Mint showed.

Ganjoo is leaving Zomato after a five-year stint. He joined the company in 2017 as the head of product development. In 2020, he was appointed co-CEO of the food delivery vertical. In August of this year, he was elevated as head of new businesses.

Before joining Zomato in 2017, Ganjoo had worked in companies like Snapdeal, Twitter, and Symantec in product management roles, as per his LinkedIn profile.

His exit follows the departure of Siddhart Jhawar, who was the head of Zomato’s Intercity Legends service.

The high-profile exits have been announced after Zomato’s second-quarter results. Its fiscal second-quarter loss narrowed from a year ago due to a sharp rise in its income from food delivery and its wholesale Hyperpure unit.

On 10 November, Zomato’s chief financial officer, Akshant Goyal in a letter to shareholders had said, “Our food delivery business has been growing and steadily moving towards profitability, I believe there is room for the business to grow much faster than what it is currently trending at.”

Zomato’s net loss narrowed to ₹251 crore for the quarter ended 30 September from ₹430 crore a year ago, the company said. Revenue from operations rose 62% to ₹1,661 crore from ₹1,024 crore. The earnings include about 50 days of Blinkit’s financials, as Zomato’s acquisition of the quick delivery company was completed in August.

Zomato has also discontinued its Pro and Pro Plus membership and is working on a new ‘loyalty programme’ for food delivery. The company’s revenue from Zomato Pro dropped significantly to ₹9 lakh.

In a separate regulatory filing, Zomato announced that Kuwait-based food delivery app Talabat will shut down the Zomato UAE app on 24 November.

Following the shutdown, the Zomato UAE app will redirect users to the Talabat app. “We would like to update the exchange that the company will discontinue rendering services to Talabat in the UAE w.e.f. November 24, 2022, and the customers looking to order food through the Zomato app in UAE will be redirected to Talabat,” stated the filing.

The dining-out services and restaurant discovery will continue via Zomato Pay.

Zomato forayed into the UAE market in 2012. In 2019, Zomato sold its food delivery business in the UAE to the Delivery Hero Group for around $172 million. The Berlin-based food delivery company entered into an agreement with Zomato Media to buy its business via Delivery Hero’s fully owned subsidiary Talabat Middle East Internet Services Company LLC in 2019.