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Eternal’s food delivery business Zomato has fired around 240 employees as it shuts down its customer support operations in Hyderabad, sources told Inc42. The move follows a review of the company’s customer-support operating model and organisational requirements, the sources added. Over the past six months, Zomato has moved a larger share of its customer-support work to specialised external partners. Following the closure of the Hyderabad operations, its remaining in-house customer support team will be consolidated in Gurugram, the sources said. The consolidation is intended to bring the team closer to Zomato’s product, technology, analytics, and business functions, they said. The Economic Times was the first to report the development, pegging the number of affected employees at around 250. Inc42 has reached out to Zomato for a comment on the restructuring. The story will be updated if a response is received. Four Months’ Pay For Employees Affected employees will receive their salary for August along with four months’ pay, comprising contractual notice pay and a one-time ex-gratia payment, the sources said. Their medical insurance and access to counselling services will continue until March 31, 2027. Zomato will also transfer ownership of the company-issued laptops and earphones used by the employees to them for personal use. The company is also expected to provide outplacement assistance to help them find other job opportunities. The restructuring is limited to the Hyderabad customer support team, with no similar changes planned for other teams at present, according to the sources. The move is part of Zomato’s overhaul of its customer support operations. In April last year, the company laid off around 600 customer support employees across Gurugram and Hyderabad as it increased its use of AI and automation. Food Safety Scrutiny Mounts The restructuring comes at a time when Zomato and other food delivery and quick commerce platforms are facing greater scrutiny over food quality, storage, and hygiene standards. Earlier in the day, Zomato announced a zero-tolerance policy on dishes containing analogue dairy products, including analogue paneer. The platform said it had removed dishes that restaurant partners had declared as containing analogue dairy and warned that non-compliant restaurants could be delisted. Earlier this month, Maharashtra’s FDA suspended the licences of 14 food establishments linked to Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart after inspecting 86 facilities across the state. The regulator also issued 60 improvement notices over alleged food-safety and hygiene violations. Five of the suspended licences were linked to Blinkit, five to Zepto, and two to Swiggy Instamart. The remaining two were linked to other food businesses. Separately, Karnataka’s Food Safety and Drug Administration inspected a Zomato Hyperpure facility in Bengaluru and issued a notice over alleged lapses related to licensing, labelling, and storage. Hyperpure is Zomato’s business-to-business supplies vertical for restaurants and other food establishments. Meanwhile, competition is intensifying across both food delivery and quick commerce. Zomato and Swiggy continue to dominate food delivery, but Rapido is expanding Ownly, while Flipkart is preparing to enter the segment in Bengaluru with a lower commission model for restaurants. In quick commerce, Eternal-owned Blinkit competes with Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, Flipkart Minutes, and Amazon Now, forcing platforms to balance growth and market-share gains with cost control and regulatory compliance.
document fetched 2026-09-01 02:51 · canonical https://inc42.com/buzz/zomato-lays-off-240-employees-shuts-hyderabad-customer-support-operations