Zomato Shuts Down Intercity Food Delivery Service ‘Legends’

Food delivery giant Zomato has announced the immediate discontinuation of its intercity food delivery service known as ‘Legends‘. This decision was made after the company faced challenges in finding a product market fit over the two years of operation, according to Chief Executive Officer Deepinder Goyal.

Launched in August 2022, the ‘Legends’ service aimed to provide consumers with food from various cities across India. However, the service encountered difficulties from its inception, which ultimately led to this decision.

In November 2022, Siddharth Jhawar, who was leading the intercity delivery service, left the company. After a brief suspension in April 2023, Zomato relaunched ‘Legends’ in July 2024 with revised strategies, including a minimum order value set at Rs 5,000.

The relaunch also involved delivering pre-stocked food items instead of direct delivery from restaurants, and targeted select customers located in major cities such as Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, and Mumbai.

In a related development, Zomato has recently shut down another service named ‘Xtreme’, which was a hyperlocal delivery offering that did not yield the expected results since its launch in October 2023.

The announcement regarding ‘Legends’ came just a day after Zomato confirmed its acquisition of Paytm Insider, a move that indicates the company’s focus on expanding its business portfolio in the food and entertainment sectors.

One 97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, disclosed the finalized agreements for the sale of its entertainment ticketing business to Zomato, in a deal valued at Rs 2,048 crore.

In recent financial reports, Zomato indicated a consolidated profit of Rs 253 crore for the first quarter of the financial year 2024-25, a significant increase from Rs 175 crore in the previous quarter. This marked the company’s first profitable quarter in the same period last year, when it earned Rs 2 crore.

Furthermore, Zomato’s revenue from operations grew by 74 percent year-on-year, reaching Rs 4,206 crore in Q1FY25, compared to Rs 2,416 crore in the previous year.

The company’s total expenses for this period were reported at Rs 4,203 crore, up from Rs 3,636 crore in the preceding quarter, highlighting the financial dynamics this fast-evolving business is currently navigating.