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Shalin Bhatt
Foodtech and quick commerce platform Zomato has appointed its former executive, Shalin Bhatt, to head its dining-out business as it looks to boost the segment.
Bhatt, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, previously served at Zomato as head of growth before leaving in 2021.
He officially returned in July last year and has now replaced Sankalp Kathuria, who stepped down as Zomato’s business head for dining out last month.
A familiar face returns to Zomato
Bhatt’s career path includes working at venture capital firm Matrix Partners India and later launching his own startup in the SaaS ecommerce space.
He also spent time at Moloco, a firm specializing in programmatic advertising solutions. His latest appointment makes him the third head of Zomato’s dining-out vertical in just over two years, following Kathuria and Aman Priyadarshi.
Focus on the District App
Zomato is shifting its dining-out users to a newly launched app called District, which aims to consolidate all of the company’s going-out offerings in one place.
This is part of Zomato’s strategy to strengthen its presence in areas beyond food delivery and quick commerce. Alongside dining-out services, the going-out vertical includes live events and ticketing, all reported separately in the company’s financials.
Growing going-out segment
Zomato has been actively building its going-out business over the past year. It recently appointed industry veterans to key positions, including Zeenah Vilcassim as CEO of Zomato Live, and former BookMyShow executive Kunal Khambhati as COO of Zomato Live.
The company also brought back senior executives Rahul Ganjoo and Pradyot Ghate to manage the transition of users from other ticketing platforms, such as Insider, TicketNew and Paytm, to District.
Last year, Zomato acquired Paytm’s events and ticketing business, an investment of Rs 2,048 crore, to bolster its live events and ticketing offerings.
Zomato’s latest quarterly earnings report shows the District app has surpassed 6.5 million downloads. However, the going-out segment posted an adjusted EBITDA loss of Rs 17 crore, driven by spending on marketing and technology for the District app.
Despite these costs, the company remains focused on expanding its going-out vertical, viewing it as a key pillar of its long-term growth strategy.