Your Eternal Investment: Blinkit's Growth Engine vs. Profitability Concerns - Should You Be Worried (Yet)?

Revenue up 64%, Profits down 78%

Eternal Ltd., you might remember them as Zomato, has been making headlines lately, not just for the name change that officially took effect in March, but also for a mixed bag of Q4 FY25 results. While the total revenue saw a significant surge of 64%, the net profits took a sharp 78% tumble. So, what's the real story behind this apparent contradiction?

Let's break it down.

First off, a quick recap on Eternal's playing field

There's the core B2C food delivery business we all know, the rapid-fire quick commerce arm Blinkit, the 'Going-out' segment that combines dining out and ticketing, and the B2B venture Hyperpure, which supplies food ingredients to restaurants.

Now, the spotlight's been particularly bright on Blinkit, and for good reason. It's currently leading the quick commerce race in India, outpacing rivals like Zepto and Swiggy Instamart. Eternal isn't planning to rest on its laurels. They're aggressively expanding Blinkit's reach by opening new dark stores at a rapid pace. In Q4 FY25 alone, they added a whopping 294 dark stores, bringing their total count to 1,301. Their ambition is to hit 2,000 dark stores by December 2025 – a full year ahead of their earlier projections. On an annualized basis, Blinkit's Gross Order Value (GOV) is running at a cool $4.4 billion, closely trailed by Zepto's near $4 billion. Eternal's CFO, Akshant Goyal, has made it clear: they're aiming for aggressive market share growth in this space.

If Blinkit is doing so well, why the dip in overall net profits?