Zomato has laid off about 240 employees and is shutting its customer support centre in Hyderabad, with the remaining in-house team to be consolidated at the company’s Gurugram headquarters. The Eternal-owned food delivery platform informed affected staff of the decision on 31 August 2026, according to Mint, which first reported the cuts.
The layoffs hit Zomato’s Hyderabad “Customer Delight” operations. An industry executive explained the rationale bluntly: “This was done based on a recent review of the Customer Delight operating model and organisational requirements. The decision affects approximately 240 workers.”
Over the past six months, a growing share of customer support work has moved to specialised external partners, leaving a smaller in-house operation that will now sit closer to Zomato’s product, technology, analytics, and business functions in Gurugram.
The severance terms are relatively broad by recent startup standards. Departing employees receive their August salary plus four months’ pay, which includes contractual notice pay and a one-time ex gratia amount. Medical insurance and counselling support continue until May 2027, and the company is transferring ownership of work laptops and earphones to the employees. Outplacement assistance is also on offer to help them find new roles. Some staff have reportedly been given the option to relocate to Gurugram rather than exit.
“Zomato’s customer support model has changed significantly over the past six months, with more work now managed through specialised external partners. The in-house work that remains needs to operate as one integrated team, closer to the product, technology, analytics and business functions in Gurgaon,” the executive added.
This isn’t Zomato’s first round of support cuts. In April last year, the company let go of close to 600 customer support associates within a year of hiring them, a decision it tied to slowing food delivery growth, losses at its quick commerce unit Blinkit, and the rollout of Nugget, its in-house AI-powered support platform. The Hyderabad closure follows the same pattern: fewer in-house agents, more automation, and a heavier reliance on third-party vendors to handle high-volume queries.
The timing draws attention too. The cuts land just weeks before India’s festive season, when order volumes for food delivery and quick commerce typically surge. They also come as delivery platforms face tighter scrutiny over food safety, storage, and hygiene standards.
For now, the restructuring is limited to the Hyderabad customer support team, with no similar changes reported for other functions. What HR professionals will watch next is whether the Gurugram consolidation becomes a template for how India’s delivery platforms restructure support roles as automation absorbs more of the frontline workload.
