Swiggy Instamart adds 316 dark stores amid peak operating losses in Q4

Swiggy Instamart has added 316 dark stores in the January-March period, taking its store count to 1,021, up from 705, amid facing losses in the quick commerce battle.  

Eternal's Blinkit has the biggest market share, as per market analysts.

Major loss incurred by Swiggy Instamart

Swiggy Instamart's adjusted core loss widened to 8.4 billion rupees in the quarter from 3.07 billion rupees a year ago.

"From hereon, we expect to progressively unwind losses," Swiggy said in a letter to shareholders, adding that the pace will be determined by the expansion of its average order values and the "quantum of competitive intensity."

Its gross order value, or the total value of all the orders in the January to March period, doubled year-on-year to 46.7 billion rupees.

Meanwhile, the company added 316 new dark stores or delivery hubs to shuttle groceries swiftly to customers.

Swiggy has now matched its pace of opening new dark stores with the market leader Blinkit, which opened around 300 dark stores in each of the previous two quarters.

At the end of Q3FY25, Swiggy had a cash balance of Rs 8,183 crore, which reduced to Rs 6,695 crore in Q4FY25, likely because of the opening of dark stores.

The online food ordering startup's total dark store count of 1,021 is now the second-highest after market leader Blinkit, which had 1,301 dark stores at the end of Q4FY25.

Zepto, a major player in the quick commerce industry, has over 750 dark stores.

Swiggy has ramped up its darkstore footprint to 4 million sq ft as guided earlier, up 62 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis.

The company now has 1,021 active dark stores as of March 2025 across 124 cities.

It added 412 new stores in the last six months, out of which one-third were added in 80 new cities. The rest were added in existing metro and tier I towns towards densification and service increased demand, as shared by Swiggy.

“With this, our immediate thrust on network expansion for the identified city coverage is substantially complete. As we increase the utilisation of our existing network, we will continue to add new stores primarily for densification, in line with growth and serviceability parameters,” Swiggy said in its letter to shareholders on May 9.

“We therefore expect to reach Contribution break-even in 3-5 quarters from now,” it added.

Also read: 'Not learning Hindi cost me Rs 1 lakh crore': Aircel founder C Sivasankaran (startuppedia.in)