Eternal Q2: Profit Tanks 63% YoY To INR 65 Cr, Revenue Up 183% YoY

Zomato and Blinkit parent Eternal’s consolidated net profit for Q2 FY26 plunged 63% to INR 65 Cr from INR 176 Cr in the year-ago quarter. On a sequential basis, the company’s profit rose 160% from INR 25 Cr.

Meanwhile, the company’s top line grew exponentially during the quarter under review. It reported an operating revenue of INR 13,590 Cr in the quarter, marking a near 183% jump from INR 4,799 Cr in the year-ago quarter. On a QoQ basis, operating revenue surged 90% from INR 7,167 Cr.

Including other income of INR 352 Cr, total income for Q2 FY26 stood at INR 13,942 Cr. Its expenses surged 189% YoY and 85% QoQ to INR 13,813 Cr.

Eternal’s consolidated adjusted EBITDA declined 32% YoY to INR 224 Cr but rose 30% from INR 172 Cr in Q1 FY26.

At a consolidated level, Eternal said its B2C NOV (net order value) grew 57% YoY and 15% QoQ to INR 23,164 Cr.

In its shareholders’ letter, the company noted that while its adjusted revenue grew 172% YoY to INR 13,968 Cr, it was not a like-to-like comparison as its quick commerce arm Blinkit has moved to an inventory-led model where revenue now also includes the full monetary value of goods sold as per Ind AS.

On a like-for-like basis, Eternal’s adjusted revenue growth stood at 65% YoY and 22% QoQ after deducting the cost of goods sold in case of own inventory sales in quick commerce and excluding the revenue from Hyperpure’s non-restaurant business.

With that, here are the key takeaways from Eternal’s financial performance. 

Food Delivery NOV Growth Bottoms Out

Zomato’s adjusted EBITDA declined 32% YoY to INR 224 Cr. The business generated a revenue of INR 2,485 Cr, up 24% YoY. Its profit for the quarter zoomed 49% YoY to INR 518 Cr. 

After five consecutive quarters of declining growth, Eternal said that Zomato’s NOV growth rate finally went up in the quarter under review. The take rate for Zomato increased by about 75 basis points (bps) while the increase in contribution margin was only about 50 bps.

Eternal CEO Deepinder Goyal said that the recovery in growth has been slower than expected and the company expects to see a slow uptick in growth rate in the near term. He added that the company is fighting multiple headwinds, including soft discretionary consumption in general in India and the impact of quick commerce growth. 

The increase in take rate during the quarter was driven by improvements at multiple fronts, including ad monetisation, commission rates, and increase in platform fee, the CEO said. 

However, this increase was partly offset by decrease in delivery charges as the company lowered the minimum order value for free delivery under its Gold programme to INR 99 from INR 199.

“This change allows us to also cater to the budget-conscious customer base for whom an order with AOV between INR 99 and INR 199 now becomes way more affordable,” he added.

Meanwhile, Zomato saw competition intensifying in the quarter, with Rapido launching its food delivery offering Ownly and Swiggy foraying into the budget category with the launch of a new app, toing. 

Speaking on this, the CEO noted that the company would adopt a wait-and-watch approach for entering new categories rather than rushing in with new app launches.

“We believe that launching another food delivery (aggregation) app to differentiate between target audiences has to be a carefully thought-out decision, since it significantly increases organisational complexity,” he noted.

Blinkit Transitions To Inventory Model

With Blinkit moving to an inventory-led model, its revenue zoomed 8.5X YoY to INR 9,891 Cr. The segment reported a profit of INR 5 Cr, down 90% YoY. Adjusted EBITDA loss declined 4% QoQ to INR 156 Cr. 

The quick commerce arm transitioned 80% of its NOV to own-inventory model during the quarter, barring a few categories. 

However, Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa noted that Blinkit’s reduction in losses was below its expectations due to investments made in the quarter. This included an acceleration in its store network expansion, which is now expected to touch 2,100 by December 2025 as against its guidance of 2,000 dark stores by the year end.

The quick commerce major added 272 net new stores in the quarter, its highest in the last 10 quarters, taking the total dark store count to 1,816.

Complementing the dark store expansion was the company’s marketing push, which Dhindsa said was 4X YoY and 1.4X QoQ higher during the quarter. 

“This does not change our long term outlook on margins, and we continue to build with a long-term view of the business. If we have to choose between high quality sustainable growth, and a short-term sacrifice of margins, we are in a position to choose the former given our strong balance sheet,” the CEO noted.

Moving forward, Blinkit is eyeing expanding its dark store network to 3,000 by March 2027. 

Blinkit’s New Business Model Hits Hyperpure

The revenue of Eternal’s B2B vertical Hyperpure declined 31% YoY and 55% QoQ to INR 1,023 Cr. However, the vertical recorded a net profit of INR 1 Cr against a loss of INR 4 Cr in the last year’s quarter, as per the company’s profit and loss statement. 

Eternal CFO Akshant Goyal attributed the decline in Hyperpure’s top line to a 94% decline in revenue of the non-restaurant business to INR 83 Cr from INR 1,479 Cr in the previous year’s quarter due to Blinkit moving to the inventory-led model. The non-restaurant business’ revenue is expected to go to zero in the near future. 

Meanwhile, Hyperpure’s core restaurant business registered a 42% YoY growth to INR 940 Cr.

The CFO said that the business is expected to become profitable over the next two quarters.

District Goes International

The company’s going-out vertical, which got a boost after the launch of new app District, reported a loss of INR 57 Cr in Q2 FY26 as against a profit of INR 18 Cr in the year-ago quarter. Sequentially, its loss increased 19% from INR 48 Cr. 

Its revenue jumped 23% YoY to INR 189 Cr but declined 9% QoQ. 

CEO Goyal said that the going-out business is rapidly expanding its user base. In line with this, the company expanded District to the UAE. 

“We already have a dining-out business in the region, and with District we are now bringing both the dining-out and live events offerings onto a single app (much like what we are doing in India). We chose to expand live events in the UAE because it is a global hub for outdoor entertainment and can potentially turn out to be an attractive market for us,” he noted. 

In June, District saw the addition of a new category ‘Stores’, adding listings of retail stores and chains to the app. The company has added 3,400 outlets across six cities, enabling 60,000 transactions since launch. 

Shares of Eternal ended today’s trading session 1.73% lower at INR 348.40 on the BSE. 

(Edited by: Vinaykumar Rai)