Eternal shares down 3% to hit five-month low after Blinkit CFO quits

Zomato’s parent company, Eternal, saw its share slip 2.6% after reports suggested that the chief financial officer of Blinkit has resigned. The company has not issued an official statement regarding the same. 

The stock was at a five-month low of Rs 275.90 at the time of reporting. The last time the share price hit a low in the past six months was in July, when the stock declined to Rs 257.20. 

Vipin Kapooria, chief financial officer of Blinkit, has resigned and is expected to return to his former employer, e-commerce giant Flipkart, media reports said, citing sources. Kapooria's resignation comes just about a year after he joined the company. It also comes at a time when competition in the quick-commerce sector is increasing, according to the news report. 

Kapooria worked for Flipkart for more than seven years and is returning soon before the company's planned IPO in 2026.

Blinkit had rehired Kapooria as its CFO after a long hiatus. His employment also marked the first time Blinkit had a full-time CFO since Amit Sachdeva, who served as CFO and head of finance from 2019 to 2022, left the company.

The decision to hire Kapooria as its full-time CFO came just a few months after Zomato said that Blinkit is the company's most important business division, and just weeks after Zomato (now Eternal) raised Rs 8,500 crore ($1 billion) through its QIP.

Kapooria's departure comes as competition in the quick-commerce industry heats up, with rivals expanding and preparing for public listings.

Zepto, a quick-commerce platform led by Aadit Palicha, recently filed draft documents with SEBI for a confidential IPO. Zepto is slated to go public in the July-September quarter of 2026, becoming the youngest new-age venture capital-backed business to do so. With its listing, all the quick-commerce giants would be listed.

What brokerages have to say

Domestic brokerage Emkay Global, in a recent report, said the market remains cautious about the long-term profitability of quick commerce (QCom) businesses as competitive intensity in the segment continues to rise. It noted that platforms have multiple margin-enhancing levers, including advertising income from brands, monetisation of sampling and market research, a higher contribution from private labels, and expansion into high-margin categories such as fashion, electronics and stationery.

The brokerage cautioned that competitive intensity in QCom is accelerating as a broader set of players targets the segment as the next growth engine for retail consumption. Horizontal e-commerce players such as Amazon and Flipkart, big-box retailers including JioMart and DMart Ready, and established QCom operators like Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto are all investing in dedicated QCom supply chains.

“While we remain constructive on the QCom space (as we see a long growth runway for the business), competition is intensifying through the entry of adjacent sector players, and capital raises by the existing players,” it said in a report.