The shares of online food delivery platforms Zomato and Swiggy recorded strong losses of 6 percent and 5 percent respectively on March 25, after international brokerage Macquarie said it remains cautious and prefers shares of Devyani International and Westlife Foodworld - both plays in the restaurant space - hoping a rising discretionary spend drives consumption recovery.
The fall in share prices coincides with the buzz over quick commerce rival Zepto's $250 million secondary sale ahead of IPO, reported by Bloomberg News, adding that Zepto is in talks to allow some of its current stockholders to sell stake. The move is aimed at enhancing the ownership of Indian investors before the unicorn goes public, the report said.
Swiggy's stock has so far fallen nearly 40 percent from its highest level in 2025, while Zomato is down nearly 25 percent, after the food delivery rivals reported lower-than-expected results for the third quarter of this fiscal.
"Currently we are going through a broad-based slowdown in demand which started during the second half of November," Rakesh Ranjan, CEO of Zomato's food ordering and delivery business had said in the company's shareholder letter on January 20.
"It (October-December) is a quarter which is slightly softer than other quarters, but we are growing at 19.2 percent, which is within the range of what we've guided to the markets about 18 to 22% growth for the category," Rohit Kapoor, CEO, Food Marketplace, Swiggy, told analysts after December quarter results, on February 5.
In the quick commerce sector, the two firms continue to fight for higher market share even as new players are emerging. Citi in its recent report had said, "In quick commerce, Swiggy may be in the third spot in terms of market share behind Blinkit and Zepto… We estimate Swiggy's market share at 23 percent, and Blinkit’s market share at 41 percent."
Despite the recent downturn in the share prices, JM Financial remains optimistic about Swiggy. The brokerage kept a 'Buy' rating with a target price of Rs 500 per share on the stock, implying an upside potential of nearly 46 percent from current market price. "As per a media report, Swiggy is close to launching a B2B supplies business through an app called Assure that will enable restaurants to source local, high-quality food ingredients. While the company has not officially announced the launch of operations, we believe Assure will directly compete with Zomato-owned Hyperpure, in addition to a wide range of unlisted start-ups and unorganised competition."
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