Management Teaching Case

Zomato’s Triumph till IPO: Is It Success Emerging Economies Cases Journal

5(1) 23­–32, 2023

Through Relationship? © The Author(s) 2023

Article reuse guidelines:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
https://doi.org/10.1177/25166042231172893
DOI: 10.1177/25166042231172893
journals.sagepub.com/home/eec

Syamala Devi Challa1, A. Kanakadurga2, Lalatendu Kesari Jena3 and Sanjeet Singh4

Abstract
Food is a basic need for everyone. We struggle throughout our life to satisfy this need. The delicious food attracts and
makes food lovers reach anywhere to get this. Convenience, quality and affordability are critical elements for the food
business. This idea has attracted Mr Deepinder Goyal and Mr Pankaj Chaddah to start Zomato. Being a first mover in
this unique food app market Zomato has struggled a lot. Before tasting its success, it was a loss-making company for a
considerable period. This case study presents the key strategies followed by Zomato to achieve success till Initial Public
Offer (IPO). It highlights how a loss-making company and food aggregator such as Zomato has succeeded through
relationship and communication strategies maintained by the company and its co-founder Deepinder Goyal. This case
study is based on understanding the significant issues and success faced by the company has been managed through public
relationship management since its inception. It is completely developed from secondary sources and publicly available
data and reports. This case is developed to discuss the essential strategies and steps taken by Zomato to improve its
position till IPO. It highlights the inception, significant steps to break even, its success through relationship marketing,
competitors’ effect, risk factors and future course of action.

Keywords
Customer loyalty, issue management, relationship marketing, strategy

A post dated on 30 July 2019 has heated the Twitter envi-
ronment of Zomato. A person refused to take food from a
Non-Hindu delivery boy. Immediately, the Zomato PR team
responded, ‘Food does not have a religion. It is a religion’.
There were some appreciation and distractions for this
tweet, which later led to the brand’s crisis. Before this, in
December 2018, the video of a delivery person who had
eaten the sealed food downsized the image of Zomato, and
Mr Pankaj Chaddah, one of the key founders of Zomato and
who rendered 10 years of profitable service, left the organi-
zation in March 2018. The market share of Zomato starts
decreasing, giving an advantage to the prime competitor
Swiggy. These incidents have made Zomato a loss-making
company for a considerable time. There were a list of con-
troversies where Zomato found itself entrapped. Deepinder
Goyal, the founder, and CEO of Zomato, confidently han-
dled these situations with the help of the PR team. A tweet
posted by him on 31 July 2019 about the incident of a Non-
Hindu delivery boy shows his responsibility and value
towards customers and delivery partners (Figure 1).
According to Zomato’s DRHP, its losses are more than
revenues until December 2020. However, Zomato is India’s
first-ever online food delivery brand that strides towards a
$1.1 billion public offering. Even though it is a loss-making
company, Indian people have trust and hope for its growth.
It has proved from the success of the IPO. But how do the
customers or investors believe in Zomato’s success?
The Inception
Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, the alumnus of the
Indian Institute of Technology and colleagues in Bain &
Company, Delhi, planted the seed for Zomato in 2008
1Kallam Haranadhareddy Institute of Technology, Guntur, Andhra
Pradesh, India
2Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India
3School of Human Resource Management, XIM University, Bhubaneswar,
Odisha, India
4Chandigarh University, Mohali, Punjab, India
Corresponding author:
Lalatendu Kesari Jena, School of Human Resource Management, XIM
University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 752050, India.
E-mail: lkjena@xim.edu.in

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits nonCommercial use, reproduction
and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages
(https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
24 Emerging Economies Cases Journal 5(1)
Figure 1. Deepinder Goyal’s Post Against Customer
Complaints.
Source: Deepinder Goyal (2019).
Table 1. Details about the Company.
Company Description
Company Name Foodiebay
Founded 2008
Founders Deepinder Goyal, Pankaj Chaddah
Renamed as Zomato
Renamed 2010
Tagline Never have a bad meal
Logo
(Table 1). Earlier, they named it Foodiebay, prologue to
Zomato, as a solution to the long-time waiting of their
office employees to get a chance to order during lunchtime.
They created a website called foodiebay.com to post
scanned copies of food court menus.
In 2008, when they had just started Foodiebay (Zomato),
the idea was surrounded by many obstacles. The usage of
smartphones and the internet was significantly less.
Touchscreen mobile phones with inbuilt mobile apps did
not exist, and the internet penetration in India was below
5%. Restaurants and food courts largely depend on distrib-
uting pamphlets, paper flyers, and catalogues through the
daily newspaper. But a customer could not get the informa-
tion about which restaurant’s food is delicious, whose
menu is unique, and who can provide better services.
Deepinder Goyal and his partner have targeted this unique
opportunity by allowing customers to post reviews, ratings,
and aggregated menus by restaurants and contact details.
Soon, others around their vicinity started using their ser-
vices and listing menus of professional restaurants in
Delhi. It was the first success they tasted, extending their
services to other metropolitan cities like Kolkata and
Mumbai.
When they received a terrific response from users and
massive traffic for the Foodiebay platform, they decided to
make it international. In November 2010, they changed
their name to Zomato from Foodiebay because it is simple,
precise and easy to memorize, reducing confusion with
eBay’s website. They devised the idea of developing a
mobile application that needed funding to make it more
user-friendly.
Overview of the Online Food Delivery
Industry in India
The Online food delivery services market is the fastest-
growing industry in India. The industry is in hyper-growth
now even though it was seeded almost a decade ago. The
main theme behind the growth of the food delivery market
around the world is Consolidation. In India, this consolida-
tion made a rapid duopoly between Swiggy and Zomato
who make deeper geographical penetration by controlling
47% and 45% of market shares, respectively. Amazon was
the new entrant in the market in May 2020. Since 2007,
many players entered India whereas two players have been
successfully ruling the Indian market (Table 2). Both
Zomato and Swiggy received considerable funding espe-
cially in 2018 to expand their operations through restaurant
partnerships and riders. The learnings from international
markets help to improve the strategy of Indian players.
Developed markets focus to increase the Average Order
Value (AOV) while players in the emerging markets target
to increase the order volumes. Meituan, the largest food
delivery platform in the world earns prime revenue levels
through a larger customer base and high orders per user
even though earns low AOV compared to emerging players
in the market. Swiggy is the follower of this strategy.
Similarly, different strategies are being followed by differ-
ent players across the globe. Conversion of single-purpose
apps to multi-use super apps is another strategy to provide
vast convenience services to consumers. Providing multi-
ple services such as grocery, medicine, ride-sharing, cloud
kitchen, among others in a single app increases the sustain-
ability of Indian players.
Zomato’s Business Model
Acquisition
The unique idea of Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah
was attracted by Mr Sanjeev Bikchandani, the founder of
naukri.com. He funded through his company Info Edge 1
million USD (December 2010), which was the first fund-
ing in Zomato. Later, along with Info Edge investments,
others continued investing in Zomato. Being a start-up
company, Zomato has successfully made 15 acquisitions
Challa et al. 25

Table 2. Key Players and Status in India.

Brand Entity Year Started Year Closed Status

Tasty Khana Partnership 2007 2014 Shut down (2014)

Just Eat Achindra Online Marketing Pvt Ltd 2008 2015 Shut down (2015)

Foodpanda Delivery Hero SE 2012 2019 Acquired by Ola in 2017 and Shut down
in 2019

Swiggy Bundl Technologies Pvt Ltd 2014 Operational

Tiny Owl Tinyowl Technology Pvt Ltd 2014 2016 Shut down (2016)

Scootsy Scootsy Logistics Pvt Ltd 2014 2020 Acquired by Swiggy (2020)

Zomato Zomato Media Pvt Ltd 2015 Operational

OlaCafe ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd 2015 2016 Shut down

Uber Eats Uber 2017 2020 Acquired by Zomato

Amazon Amazon 2020 Operational

Figure 2. Key Shareholders and Their Holding Percentages in Zomato.

till February 2021, and the total funding reached $1.7 bil-
lion and was valued at $5.4 billion. The key shareholders
of Zomato are shown in Figure 2. Zomato used restaurant
staff for food delivery to attain profitability from online
food services. However, they felt it depended on restau-
rants for delivery and the cost of losing ₹2 per order. Then,
the need made Zomato venture into food delivery services
in 2015 and started restaurant reservations in 2016. In
2017, the acquisition of Runnr (A Bengaluru-based
start-up) helped Zomato to improve its delivery capability.
Later, in 2019 the acquisition of Uber Eats in exchange for
a 9.99% stake in the company exceeded Zomato’s reach in
500 cities by strengthening its position in South and West
India (Table 3).
26 Emerging Economies Cases Journal 5(1)
Table 3. Major Acquisitions and Their Purpose.
Year Name
2014 Menu Mania
Cibando
Gastronauci
Lunchtime
Obedovat
2015 NexTable
Urbanspoon
Mekanist
2017 Runnr
2018 TongueStun Foods
2020 Uber Eats
Expansion and Business Transformation
Even though Zomato has been successful in delivery, its
significant goal was to grab the restaurant market for both
the demand and supply sides. It is evident from the ven-
tures that include (a) Food delivery, (b) Dining-out, (c)
Hyperpure and (d) Zomato Pro (Table 4)
The food delivery app allows customers to order online
and get the order at their doorstep. Delivery partners, who
are well trained, make the delivery hassle-free with less
human intervention. If the customer wants to reserve a
table, the dining-out platform lists the restaurants, photos,
ratings and reviews and allows customers to reserve a table
and pay online. Zomato starts supplying quality ingredi-
ents to restaurant partners through Hyperpure. Zomato Pro
is a paid membership program exclusively offered to cus-
tomers who purchase a membership by paying a fee. It is
an agreement with selected restaurants to provide discount
offers to the Pro members across food delivery and dining-
out services. In 2020, during the first phase of COVID-19,
when the restaurants were shut down, Zomato started
delivering groceries. But Goyal ended their service as soon
as the Government lifted the lockdown. In July 2021,
Goyal announced its plan to venture into the grocery deliv-
ery marketplace again on a pilot basis. Zomato’s major
steps till IPO can be observed in Figure 3 in the form of a
timeline.
Zomato’s Operating Model
Zomato is a user-friendly app that provides food delivery
services, user reviews, menus of nearby restaurants, and
ratings. Zomato considers Customers, Delivery Partners
and Restaurant Partners as pillars and key stakeholders of
Purpose
New Zealand market
Italy expansion
New polish market
New Czech Republic market
Slovakian market
US market table booking portal
US market restaurant discovery portal
The new market of Turkey
Creation of an in-house delivery fleet
Food and work offering
Strengthening position in the Indian market
the company. Placing an order in Zomato is straightfor-
ward. It starts with ordering food in a restaurant by explor-
ing various restaurants through the app. Then the restaurant
receives the order and starts preparing the meal. Customers
can estimate the arrival time by tracking their orders. Once
the food is ready, it is given to the delivery providers who
deliver the meal at the customer’s preferred location. And
finally, from the available payment options, customers can
pay for the order and give reviews and ratings based on
their experiences. Zomato has removed the long waiting
hours at restaurants and ensures prompt food delivery at
the customer’s doorstep, which delights food lovers.
Zomato also allows new food market members who want a
robust online presence to promote their products. Currently,
the primary revenue source for Zomato is through adver-
tisements, food delivery, and subscriptions to Zomato Pro.
The revenue, cost drivers and uniqueness of the online reli-
able base services are shown in Table 4.
Zomato’s Strategy, Strengths,
Opportunities and Risk Factors
Strategy and Strengths
Technology and unique content have made the flywheel
strong. Zomato believes that huge content increases cus-
tomer base, and more customers give richer content and
vice versa. A more customer base increases food delivery
transactions, which leads to the number of restaurants on
the platform for delivery. If the number of delivery transac-
tions increases, it decreases the cost per unit and ultimately
lowers food delivery prices, reducing the prices for cus-
tomers. This cycle is interlinked and helps the company
increase customer and restaurant partners’ loyalty.
Challa et al. 27

Table 4. Revenue, Cost Drivers and Uniqueness of Zomato Offerings.

Factors
Revenue model • Advertising Advertising Transaction based Based on subscription
• Based on transaction
Drivers of revenue • B
 ased on monthly • It depends on Monthly • Order frequency • Pro members
transacting users Active Users (MAUs)
• A
 verage Order Value • P
 ayment made by • Supplies per order • Membership fee
(AOV) restaurant partners for
delivery and advertising
sales of the product
• Order Frequency • Restaurant partners
• C
 ommission rates
charged from
restaurant partners
• P
 ayment made by
restaurant partners
for delivery and
advertising sales of the
product
Cost drivers • E xpand on marketing Sales team Cost of goods sold Spend on marketing
and discounts
• Delivery cost
Uniqueness • L argest online food In terms of customer base, Assurance of quality to An exclusive customer-
delivery company in the most extensive food- the customers with the paid membership
India focused restaurant listing and ‘hyperpure’ tag program offers flat
reviews platform discounts on food
• L argest hyper-local delivery and dining out
delivery; delivering
94% of orders in
30 min

Continuous focus on economics and growth is Zomato’s
long-term strategy.
Goyal said, ‘We know that whenever the industry
grows, Zomato grows along with it’. Even though it has
been facing losses, it continuously made considerable
investments in advertising and sales promotions. It is
believed that the investment has resulted in the customers’
repeat purchases and made them loyal. As a result, the
increase in repeat orders leads to a decrease in the cost of
advertising and sales promotions over time. As a percent-
age of total income, Zomato spent advertising and sales
promotion expenses, as shown in Figure 5. The expenses
on advertising have been decreasing based on total income
gained.
It is essential to understand the unit economics of
Zomato to estimate its profits/losses. The profit per order is
calculated based on the commission charged by the com-
pany from restaurants in addition to the delivery charges
collected and by subtracting delivery costs, discounts, and
other variable costs from it. Figure 6 shows unit economics
for the year 2020 and 9 months of unit economics from the
year 2021. It generated ₹22.9 profit per order in the finan-
cial year 2021 against the ₹30.5 loss per order in 2019. The
main reason for gaining this profit is the AOV, while to
gain profits in food delivery companies, the AOV should
reach 400. After the COVID-19 pandemic, Zomato’s AOV
has increased from 395 to 400 in the current year, which is
the base for reaching profits per order (Figure 7). Deepinder
Goyal’s leadership, positive decisions and a strong team
are the most significant strengths that positively impacted
the brand and led to the success of the IPO.
Opportunities
In FY20, Zomato reported revenue of ₹2,486 crore, but its
losses broadened to ₹2,451 crore. Even though it is a loss-
making company, its valuation is far above its global peers.
Tech-based companies such as Zomato needed huge invest-
ments initially, but as the unit economics started evolving,
they needed to attain the growing opportunities in India. As
28 Emerging Economies Cases Journal 5(1)

Figure 3. Zomato’s Timeline.

Source: Zomato.
Challa et al. 29

Figure 7. Zomato’s AOV.

Source: Zomato’s DRHP.

India is one of the youngest nations in the world, with a

mean age of 28 years, as against 38 in China and the US,
there is an enormous scope for the food delivery industry to
Figure 4. Zomato’s Strategy. grow. The following are the opportunities in India for the
Source: Zomato DRHP.
food delivery companies.

• Scope to increase the food delivery market as

Figure 5. Expenditure on Advertising and Sales Promotion.
Source: Zomato DRHP.
43% of the Indian population has internet access,
but only 9% are online food delivery users. If
internet access increases, then the opportunity for
the food delivery market will increase.
• According to World Economic Forum, India will
be the third-largest consumer market by 2030 by
developing infrastructure, industries, education,
job opportunities and income.
• India has a large working population in the age
bracket of 20–59 years.
• World Bank estimates that 34% of the Indian pop-
ulation (466 million people) will reside in urban
in 2019. As per United Nations Population
Division, it will grow to 37% by 2025. So, there
must be an increase in purchasing power of the
urban population with the most substantial growth
across industries.

Risk Factors
Along with the opportunities, Zomato has some risk fac-
tors which need to consider for consistent growth in the
future.

• AOV: Should maintain and increase AOV,

increasing the business’s revenue. If the history of
net losses is repeated, it will threaten the busi-
ness’s growth.
• Competition: Swiggy is the main competitor for
Zomato as it is a two-player or duopolistic market
for the food delivery business in India. Amazon
started its operations in May 2020 but not aggres-
Figure 6. Zomato’s Unit Economics.
sively acting. If it expands its business assertively,
Source: Zomato DRHP. it will lead to a drastic change in the margins.
30 Emerging Economies Cases Journal 5(1)
Along with the cloud kitchens, chain restaurants,
with their delivery mechanisms and other tradi-
tional offline ordering channels, come under the
threat of competition.
• Commissions: As Zomato is listed in IPO, if it
increases its commissions to increase profits for
the investors, it may diversify restaurant partners
and customers.
• Technological development: Zomato must update
its technology to improve customer responsive-
ness to remain competitive.
Disputes Surrounding Zomato
Disputes with Customers
Nowadays, sharing bad or good information through social
media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is
elementary. Zomato faced many controversies from cus-
tomers that were shared on social media. Some controver-
sies have increased the company’s credibility, and Zomato
has paid the customers in some disputes. In the controversy
of unfair trade practice, State Consumer Disputes Redressal
Commission has ordered Zomato to pay ₹10,000 and a free
meal to the customer named Ajay Sharma for deficiency in
providing services and unfair trade practices. In this case,
Zomato has violated the delivery scheme ‘on-time or free
food’ in the case of a customer who paid an extra amount
for on-time delivery. Apart from this, customers used to
express their complaints and negative opinions on food
delivery and other services through Twitter regularly.
Disputes with Restaurant Partners
Restaurant partners are another critical stakeholder whose
support is keen for the company’s success. But sometimes,
the strategy followed by the company may lead to a dis-
traction in the relationship. The #Logout campaign started
in Gurgaon in 2019 and has delisted more than 12,000 res-
taurants from food delivery. Nearly more than 500 compa-
nies blocked Zomato in Ahmedabad. They felt that the
deep discounts offered by the company had eaten away at
their profits. Even though these apps help the restaurant
partners to get a more significant number of customers,
they believe that the deep discounts may switch customer
loyalty from restaurants to food apps which gives them
control over the market. They also continued boycotting
Zomato Gold services because of its deep discounting.
Disputes with Delivery Partners
Delivery partners, who are essential assets of the company,
have been expressing dissatisfaction due to less basic and
variable pay, job security, etc. Frequently, they used to go
on strike in demand of their benefits. Being gig workers,
they demand fair wages and permanent employment. For
instance, in 2019, nearly 6,000 Zomato delivery partners
went on strike across Mumbai and Bengaluru. They logged
out of the app, protesting a decrease in payment for each
delivery from ₹40 to ₹30. They also raised their voices
against the company on the issues of delivery of beef and
pork and non-Hindu boy’s religious issue.
Managing Disputes Through
Relationship Marketing Strategies
Relationship marketing strategies are a form of integrating
marketing communication wherein a company needs to
develop its image in various disciplinary roots such as
Business Marketing (Interaction & Network approach),
Marketing Channels, Services Marketing, Database and
Direct Marketing (Möller & Halinen, 2000). Goyal and his
team have maintained a strategic relationship with custom-
ers, delivery partners and restaurant partners, the compa-
ny’s key stakeholders. Zomato believed in relationships
and concentrated on satisfying the different needs of the
stakeholders. Goyal’s timely interaction and strategic
response with stakeholders turn them loyal to the company.
Zomato is not just serving food for us; it entertains and
engages through its unique marketing strategies across all
the available platforms. As of today, Zomato has 1.4 mil-
lion Twitter followers. It often asks a question or flashes an
advertisement related to the occasions or issues loaded
with humour and ends with the message. Few examples
like as the tweet ‘Guys, Kabhi Ghar ka khana bhi Kha
Lena chahiye’ (reverse marketing), as a message on wom-
en’s day ‘Cooking is her choice, not her duty’ cast by the
father of P. V. Sindhu (India’s first world badminton cham-
pion) and many more have developed positive brand image
in the minds of customers.
Relationship with Customers
Goyal has not limited his relationship with the consumers
or the public to the business. He maintained his relation-
ship by providing a menu of different restaurants according
to customers’ locality, budget and preferred tastes. He also
handled customer grievances, maintained emotional bonds,
entertained with timely interactions and promotions, and
did help in times of emergencies. A customer needs a good
product, timely delivery, prompt service, immediate
response and problem-solving ability from the company to
turn delighted or become a loyal customer. Zomato has
also faced some issues from customers as discussed earlier.
Still, they have solved at the right time adequately by
Deepinder Goyal, which turned so many customers loyal to
the company.
According to science, we remember 20% of what we
read but 80% of what we see. Zomato ideally applies it
through its advertisements. It spent a considerable amount
on the advertisement to create repetitive advantage and
Challa et al. 31

Table 5. Zomato’s Network.

Network of Zomato (As of December 2020)

Total cities covered 526

Active restaurant listings 350,174

Active food delivery restaurants 131,233

Active delivery partners 161,637

Hyperpure supplies across restaurant partners 6,000

Pro restaurant partners 25,350

Pro members 1.4 million

Footprints across countries 23

Figure 8. Zomato’s Relationship with Customers.

Source: Deepinder Goyal (2019).

brand remembrance. For instance, if we spend one hour

watching any video on YouTube, we come across a Zomato
advertisement at least once or twice, depending on the
nature of the video we watch. It gives the advantage of
brand awareness and increases sales. Zomato also provided
entertainment through humour-based advertisements, mak-
ing people think with message-oriented advertisements. It
also attracts through timely discounts and offers. During
the COVID-19 pandemic, it came up with a Zomato app
feature, ‘Priority delivery for Covid emergencies.’ Delivery
partners and restaurants took this order on a priority basis
and helped needy people. Deepinder Goyal and Zomato
team extended their support through the endeavours Figure 9. Zomato’s Relationship with Delivery Partners.
namely, ‘Feed the Daily Wager’ and ‘Help Save My India’.
Through ‘Feed the Daily Wager’, they distributed nearly Source: Deepinder Goyal (2019).
78 million meals for free to needy people who were poor
and lost access to daily work. Zomato joined with Delhivery are the ones who have direct contact with the customers. It
to supply oxygen concentrators and related supplies to help always reflects in Deepinder Goyal’s tweets. Zomato also
families and hospitals in need (Figure 8). Customers are of faced a crisis through an employee strike from a group of
different natures. A company should be able to satisfy as delivery workers in Howrah, West Bengal continuing the
many segments as possible to succeed. Zomato got suc- issue of ‘Food is Religion’. Some of the delivery partners
cessful in this aspect which is reflected in its IPO. expressed their unwillingness to deliver beef and pork.
Zomato released an official statement clarifying the nature
of the job they have to do in a country as diversified as
Relationship with Delivery Partners India, and later they settled the issue. We can see Goyal’s
Goyal and Zomato always consider delivery partners as a support and value to the delivery partners through the
critical part and backbone of its community because they above-discussed issues (Figure 9). Zomato provides
32 Emerging Economies Cases Journal 5(1)
earning opportunities to 161,637 active delivery partners in
India (Table 5). Deepinder Goyal and Zomato team always
stands to help their delivery partners by providing insur-
ance benefits and assistance in two-wheeler financing.
Goyal encourages women delivery partners in their fleet.
Zomato applied a parental leave policy to men and women
equally and started free crèche at their headquarters to
facilitate parental care (Figure 9).
Relationship with Restaurant Partners
Zomato believes restaurants as the foundation for their
business and success. Deepinder Goyal maintains a strong
relationship with restaurant partners and produces timely
support. Zomato displays the list of restaurants on its online
discovery platform for free. This feature helps restaurant
partners to find new customers and increase the demand
for their products. Zomato helps in the industry’s growth
by providing access to the market and a sophisticated digi-
tal marketing platform, availing a large fleet of delivery
partners, and allowing them to expand beyond the physical
limitations of small and large restaurants. In 2019, Zomato
faced a campaign #logout from restaurants against huge
discounts through the Zomato gold program. Soon, Goyal
apologized on Twitter, sent an email to all gold restaurants
declaring ten changes in response to their concerns, and
came out with the new idea of extending Zomato Gold to
delivery.
Future Course of Action
During the pandemic, many companies struggled to run
their businesses, and many have shut down their opera-
tions due to unending obstacles. But we could not say all
companies were unsuccessful in this traumatic phase.
Some companies grabbed the opportunity to arise out of it
and went successful, like Zomato. ‘Rome was not built in
a day’ is a suitable notion for Zomato. A food tech uni-
corn, origins Gurugram has become synonymous with
food. Its journey was a roller-coaster ride till it was listed
on the Indian stock exchanges to raise funds. Zomato’s
journey has undergone several struggles and has taken
some inspirational steps to sustain itself in the competi-
tion. Its timely decisions were keys to the success of its
journey. But the risk factors such as competition, AOV,
commissions, technological development, and keeping
the promises to stakeholders after the IPO may alter the
future of Zomato. Goyal’s leadership is one of the best
assets for Zomato. Even though, will he be able to main-
tain strategic decisions in the future is questionable?
Although entrepreneurial skills and innovation positively
affect business performance, it has not been proven the
same strategies will be helpful to deal with future market
changes. Zomato tended to be more proactive and less
passive to deal with the future.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect
to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, author-
ship and/or publication of this article.
ORCID iD
Lalatendu Kesari Jena  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8610-3865
References
Goyal, D. (2019). Introducing the new parental leave policy at
Zomato. https://www.zomato.com/blog/parental-leave-pol-
icy
Möller, K., & Halinen, A. (2000). Relationship marketing theory:
‘Its roots and directions’. Journal of Marketing Management,
16(1–3), 29–54.