Zomato’s Latest Fee, Weekly Funding Rundown & More

Now, Zomato To Charge A COD Fee

Zomato has begun charging some customers an extra fee for paying cash on delivery. With this, it is adding another layer to its already crowded order bill. So, is this an aberration or the food delivery giant’s latest push to monetise every order?

A Fee For Paying Cash: The new “pay on delivery” charge has appeared on select Zomato orders, making COD more expensive. The amount varies between ₹5 to ₹21, and is separate from platform, delivery, packaging and other tax charges. All said and done, the move means that cash on delivery is no longer simply a payment choice.

The New Monetisation Layer: For Zomato, the latest fee opens another high-margin channel that monetises its sticky customer base. The levy also penalises a specific behaviour. By making cash payment costlier, Zomato aims to recover handling costs, reduce order risk and encourage online payments. 

But the COD levy also adds another variable charge to a user’s food bill. Paying in cash, often a matter of preference or necessity, is now being treated as a premium choice. 

A Recurring Pattern? Zomato’s latest levy is not an isolated pricing tweak but part of a recurring pattern. Earlier this year, it hiked the platform fees by nearly 20% to ₹14.90 per order from ₹12.50 earlier. For a food delivery business seeking better margins, the latest levy appears to be an easy lever to pump up revenue. 

Rivals Close In: Zomato’s latest monetisation move comes amid intensifying competition in the food delivery space. Flipkart is piloting Eat In, Rapido is scaling its zero-commission Ownly play, and newer players such as Swish are expanding rapidly. These challengers may not yet threaten Zomato’s dominance, but they could force the Eternal-owned platform to defend users and restaurants more aggressively. 

So, will the latest fees make Zomato more resilient or give rivals an opening to gain users? Let’s find out…

From The Editor’s Desk

Weekly Startup Funding Rebounds

• Indian startups raised a combined $321.9 Mn last week, up 82% from $176 Mn in the preceding week. This came despite deal count declining 9% week-on-week to 20. Pixxel and Popo Global took the biggest cheques home at $100 Mn and $56 Mn, respectively.
• Advanced hardware & technology emerged as the most-funded sector last week, with two startups raising a combined $121 Mn. Ecommerce saw the most number of deals, with six brands raising $80 Mn. 
• Early-stage funding remained subdued, with three new-age ventures raising a total of $3.3 Mn across pre-seed and seed rounds. Peak XV Partners, Accel and Prath Ventures were the most active investors last week, backing two startups each.

Way2News Vs AppsForBharat

• A Bengaluru court has temporarily restrained the hyperlocal news platform and its employees from using confidential information belonging to the Sri Mandir operator. The ad-interim injunction will remain in place till the next hearing on October 5.
• At the centre of the row is ex-AppsForBharat employee Shivam Kumar Singh, who later joined Way2News. The spiritual tech startup alleges that he shared confidential data with the news startup and breached his non-compete obligations.
• AppsForBharat has sought ₹1 Cr in compensation, return of its confidential material and permanent restrictions on alleged misuse of the disputed content. However, the latest interim order does not find Way2News guilty of data theft or copyright infringement.

Mixed Week For Startup Stocks

• New-age tech stocks delivered a mixed performance last week as the weak equity market kept investors cautious. Of the 63 listed new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage, 33 ended last week in the red. The remaining 30 clocked healthy gains. 
• While ESDS and Pine Labs emerged as the biggest gainers last week, Yudiz and LEAP India shed the most. The combined m-cap of the 64 new-age tech companies, including recently listed Purple Style Labs, stood at $171.6 Bn at the end of the week.
• Going forward, investors will now track the US Federal Reserve’s policy decision, domestic inflation data, crude oil prices and developments in the US-Iran conflict for market cues next week.

NPCI’s Profitable FY26 Show

• The National Payments Corporation of India’s consolidated net profit fell 32.4% YoY to ₹989.4 Cr in FY26. The decline came as a sharp rise in tax expenses offset growth in its pre-tax profit.
• Overall, total expenses zoomed 31.5% YoY to ₹2,984.6 Cr in the fiscal under review. Nevertheless, the payments body’s top line continued to grow, with revenue from operations jumping 21.8% YoY to ₹4,240 Cr in FY26.  
• Meanwhile, payments app BHIM’s net loss widened nearly 6X YoY to ₹390.6 Cr in FY26, while NPCI Bharat BillPay Ltd’s net profit grew 33.6% YoY to ₹31.5 Cr. NPCI International Payments also reported a loss of ₹19.4 Cr in the fiscal under review. 

India’s Listed Startup Tracker

• For Indian startups, achieving a public listing has for long symbolised operational progression, transparency and long-term viability. So, it is no surprise that more than 70 new-age tech companies have gone public so far, boasting a combined m-cap of $192 Bn.
• In 2026 alone, 12 startups have hit Dalal Street, including the likes of ESDS Software Solution, Turtlemint, Klassroom, Shiprocket, LEAP India, among others.
• Fintech leads the sectoral charts and accounts for the biggest chunk of Indian startups that have gone public. Meanwhile, Delhi NCR is home to the highest number of listed homegrown startups.

Inc42 Markets

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

How Profound Is Turning Resume Into An AI-Powered Profile

A resume can list a professional’s history, but it rarely captures working style or ambition. Profound is building an AI platform that learns who a person is, and then works in the background to create opportunities, introductions and career momentum.

Building An AI Persona: Founded in 2026, Profound is positioning itself as an AI-native professional networking platform. The startup helps users create their AI representative, akin to the managers that represent actors. After a roughly 30-minute voice conversation, the platform learns about a user’s expertise, experience, working style and career ambitions.

Layers Of Context: Profound’s tech stack spans understanding, representation, connection and amplification. Voice AI and multimodal interfaces build a detailed model of the user, while multiple AI systems generate professional content, explain expertise, facilitate introductions and proactively surface relevant networking or career opportunities.

Catering To Enterprises: The startup is also developing a B2B hiring product for startups. It aims to help companies discover candidates, assess role fit and identify gaps that require further verification. Profound now plans to ramp up hiring, product development and AI capabilities as it searches for a product-market fit. 

With India’s staffing and recruitment market expected to become a ₹15,770 Cr opportunity by FY29, can Profound’s AI stack replace the static resume?

Infographic Of The Day

From a personal health project to now its first Brain Flow validation study, here’s a look at how far Deepinder Goyal-led healthtech startup Temple has come….

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