Food delivery giant Swiggy’s ambition to become the one-stop platform for urban convenience is undeniable, but when it comes to the business, profitability has remained inconveniently elusive.

Despite the major UI-UX overhaul last month giving the Swiggy app a new look, its Q1 FY26 financial numbers revealed a familiar picture: burn to grow.

At a time when the majority of the new age tech companies have turned profitable or are showing signs of profitability, Swiggy’s loss continues to grow both sequentially and annually. The company reported a net loss that zoomed 96% to INR 1,197 Cr in the June quarter from INR 611 Cr in the year-ago quarter. On a sequential basis, the company’s loss grew 11% from INR 1,081 Cr.

This was reflected in the company’s stock plunging by 4% the next day after the results.

The company has reached a point where all hope to scale now rests on Instamart. Ironic as it may sound, currently, it is Instamart that is dragging Swiggy to further red.

While Swiggy CEO Sriharsha Majety underlined that Instamart has grown out of the shadow of the food delivery business, the important question remains: when will the quick commerce arm start driving its growth?

Moreover, with Instamart’s plan to slow down expansion, the question that further sticks out is how Swiggy intends to scale and deliver profitability at the same time.

Instamart Grew, But At What Cost?

The quick commerce grew over 100% gross order value (GOV) in the Q1 FY26, contributing almost 40% of Swiggy’s overall GOV.

This growth has been fueled by the aggressive expansion of its dark store network. After adding 314 dark stores in Q4 FY25, Instamart added 41 in the last quarter. As a result, the quick commerce arms’ adjusted revenue surged by 113% YoY to INR 859 Cr during the quarter.

More importantly, the focus on expanding product assortment led to a total order count of 17.6 Cr, spurred by the gradual increase of non-grocery categories, which offer better margin value than the typically razor-thin grocery segment.

Instamart certainly seems to have grown out of the shadow of the food business in terms of GOV, but a closer look at the overall company’s financials reveals that Instamart continues to run on food business revenue. Instamart’s rising EBITDA losses of INR 896 Cr, against the food business’s profit of INR 192 Cr, is also a stark contrast that is hard to miss.

Of the company wide INR 319 Cr in capital expenditure incurred this quarter, about three-fourths was incurred towards warehousing capacity expansion and funding of the previous quarter’s darkstore expansion, and the remainder towards darkstore additions.

Swiggy’s cash burn........

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