India's Swiggy reported a quarterly loss that nearly doubled year-on-year on Friday, as the online platform spent heavily to beef up its quick commerce delivery business to compete with rival Eternal's Blinkit and startup Zepto.
The food and grocery delivery company reported a consolidated loss of 10.81 billion rupees ($126.64 million) for the fourth quarter ended March 31, compared to a 5.55 billion rupees loss a year earlier.
Revenue from operations climbed nearly 45% from last year to 44.1 billion rupees, led by robust growth in its quick commerce service, Instamart - which aims to deliver everything from groceries to appliances in 10 minutes.
Quick commerce, largely catering to the largest consumption category of groceries, has become a fiercely competitive space in India while growing at a blistering pace.
Instamart's gross order value, or the total value of all the orders in the January to March period, doubled year-on-year to 46.7 billion rupees.
Instamart added 316 new dark stores in the quarter, used to deliver quick commerce orders, a 45% growth quarter on quarter.
To gain more market share, top players have ramped up discounts and subsidised deliveries while pouring money into opening more stores. This has come at the expense of near-term profitability for both Instamart and Blinkit.
