New sign-ups, renewals stopped for Zomato Pro; users complain

Food tech platform Zomato has stopped new sign-ups and renewals for its flagship programme Zomato Pro, and its loyal customers are clearly not happy with the company's move. Several Zomato Pro users have taken to social media in the past two days complaining about their inability to renew their Pro membership on Zomato.

The food-tech platform, in a clarification to its customers, said Zomato Pro is unavailable for renewal as "we are working on a new experience for you. We will get back with an update soon. We'd also like to thank you for being a part of the Zomato Pro program".

The company also said that Zomato Pro is being upgraded to provide customers with a better experience. "Please stay tuned to your Zomato app for further updates. Let us know if any further help is required from our end and we will be more than happy to assist you."

Zomato customers, meanwhile, were a harried lot as they faced inconvenience in renewing their Pro subscriptions. "@ZomatoProHelp well it's been time I really appreciate ur program of pro but not wanting users to renew due to ur internal decisions is absolutely absurd. Am a nonuser of food delivery apps like Swiggy and relied on pro 4 my orders in dine-in but now I have to depend on others," wrote a Twitter user (@PaiRaveen).

Another (@sksingh879) said: "Hello...No option to renew Pro Plus Membership..Please help...or do I need to wait for the invite again?" "Many times I have asked reg renewal of PRO program in Chennai. But getting only a readymade copy-paste response. Deleted Zomato App. Thank you," said @anandhapriyam2.

Zomato had upgraded Zomato Gold to Zomato Pro for its customers on August 1, 2020. Pro members were getting access to exclusive delivery offers over and above any deals available to other Zomato users. Pro members also got priority delivery on Zomato, which led to orders getting delivered 15-20% faster than usual. Zomato Pro also came with a money-back guarantee, and customers could save 2x the subscription fee of Zomato Pro within the subscription period.

The food-tech company has also said that from September 20 onwards, Zomato will cap cashback on orders placed using Zomato's co-branded credit cards with RBL Bank to 500 editions cash per day; 1 edition cash is equal to Re 1, which can be redeemed in the subsequent transactions. Zomato offers 5% edition cash on spending done on Zomato & Blinkit app.

Zomato, like most new-age listed companies, is struggling to make itself profitable but it hit an important milestone in the April-June quarter by getting to adjusted EBITDA break-even. The food delivery company was able to halve its consolidated net loss on an annual basis to ₹185.7 crore during April-June 2022, while at the same time recording a 67.44% jump in revenue at ₹1,413.9 crore YoY.

Zomato's shares have been on an upward rally since hitting the all-time low of ₹40.55 in July 2022. The food-tech stock has surged 13% in the past month to ₹61 today; though the stock is 0.81% down today. However, the stock is still down 56.92% in the year-to-date period and 52.14% in the past year.

Earlier this month, two major Zomato investors Uber and Tiger Global trimmed and sold their stakes in Zomato, respectively, after the one-year lock-up on their pre-IPO shares ended. Uber acquired a stake in the food technology firm after it sold the Indian operations of Uber Eats, its food delivery business, for around $350 million in January 2020. Tiger Global, through its investment vehicle Internet Fund IV, owned a 5.11% stake in Zomato before the lock-in period and reduced its shareholding to 2.77%.