Eternal vs Swiggy: How India's two quick commerce and food delivery giants fared in Q2FY27

The Indian food delivery and quick commerce giants have announced their quarterly earnings report for September 2026. Both stocks have remained in focus after the earnings showed a visible divergence in performance for the quarter. Eternal's earnings remain resilient and consistent on the growth path, while Swiggy continues to remain in loss at the operating level.

Topline

At the topline level, Eternal’s consolidated revenue grew almost 76% YoY to ₹24,621 crore as compared to ₹13,968 crore in the quarter ended September 2025. The large part of this surge was primarily driven by 93% YoY jump in the quick commerce segment revenue during the quarter. Similarly, other segments like Food delivery and going out also delivered a 35% and 60% YoY rise in revenue, further augmenting the overall growth.

On the other hand, Swiggy’s total consolidated revenue jumped 33% YoY to ₹7,909 crore as the total gross order value for the platform jumped 24.6% YoY to ₹20,793 crore. Food delivery business continues to drive majority of the revenue for the company which grew 18% YoY. The quick commerce segment delivered more than 30% YoY growth in revenue, contributing 16.4% of the total revenue.

Operational Efficiency

At the operational level, the real divergence in the performance for both the company emerges. At the consolidated level, Eternal continues to remain EBITDA positive at ₹666 crore, up 442% YoY. Food delivery business continued to remain major EBITDA contributor, despite substantially less revenue as compared to the quick commerce segment.

On the other hand Swiggy’s EBITDA loss widened from ₹695 crore in Q2FY26 to ₹760 crore in the September quarter of FY27. The quick commerce business continued to weigh pressure on the overall operational performance as the Instamart’s EBITDA loss widened from ₹849 crore in the Q2FY26 to ₹895 crore in the Q2FY27. Whereas, the food delivery business’ EBITDA margin expanded from 2.8% in Q2FY26 to 3.4% in Q2FY27, benefiting overall performance.

Blinkit vs Instamart

The quick commerce platforms of both the companies delivered overall steady growth in the business. Blinkit continues to dominate the space with wider reach, strong product profile, and one of the highest average order values in the segment. Blinkit delivered 398.9 million orders in Q2FY27 vs 130.3million orders by Swiggy Instamart. Blinkit has twice as many dark stores as Swiggy instamart as of quarter gone by. Blinkit total dark stores increased from 1816 in Q2FY26 to 2751 in Q2FY27. Whereas, Instamart continues to service through 1240 dark stores as of Q2FY27 vs 1025 stores in the same period last year.

Interestingly, Instamart’s average order value per order is significantly higher at ₹708 as compared to Blinkt’s at ₹525. However, Blinkit continues to remain EBITDA positive despite lower order value as compared to Instarmart. The customer acquisition costs and faster return of capital invested at the dark store level for Blinkit, continues to remain a key catalyst to the growth.

Profitability

Lastly, owing to positive operating performance and low base, the Eternal’s profitability growth superceded that of Swiggy. At the consolidated level, Eternal’s net profit for the quarter nearly doubled to ₹125 crore for Q2FY27 as compared to ₹65 crore in the same period last year. For Swiggy, the net loss narrowed from ₹1092 crore in Q2FY26 to ₹922 crore for the quarter ended September 2026. Operational efficiency remains a major difference in both the two companies, driving the majority of the performance.

Cash flow

Quick commerce, or overall food and grocery delivery, continues to remain a high capex business, demanding consistent cash burn to run and grow the business. Both companies remain committed to growing the business with lower acquisition and marketing costs in order to sustain it in the long term. For Q2FY27, Swiggy spent ₹199 crore as the total capital expenditure, as compared to ₹941 crore by Eternal. Eternal also spent significant amount in servicing working capital requirements at ₹1463 crore, mainly spent on inventory buildup ahead of festive season.

Quick commerce business remains major capex account for both the companies as growing in new areas, initial dark store costs and discounts, are majority of the cash burning avenues for the quick commerce segment.