Zomato to Raise $150 Million From Alibaba's Ant Financial

Zomato was last valued at $2 billion when it picked up capital last year after it sold its UAE delivery business to Berlin-based Delivery Hero for $172 million (Rs 1,220 crore) and separately raised $105 million.
India's Zomato is raising $150 million from investor Ant Financial, an Alibaba affiliate, at a valuation of $3 billion for the food delivery startup.

Zomato's top shareholder Info Edge (India) said in a filing on Friday that after the funding its stake will drop to about 25.13 percent. It had a 26.38 percent stake as of March last year.

The fund infusion comes as Zomato pushes for a bigger market share in the highly competitive Indian food delivery space in a race with rivals such as Tencent-backed Swiggy and Uber's Uber Eats.

The capital is part of a larger $500 million fundraising that is likely to close in the next two months, the Economic Times newspaper reported, citing a person with knowledge of the matter.

Zomato did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

The Gurugram-based restaurant aggregator recorded a loss of $294 million in the year to March compared with a loss of $12 million a year earlier as it burnt more cash in its Indian delivery business to grab new customers, unaudited figures from its annual report showed.

Zomato is an Indian restaurant aggregator and food delivery start up founded in 2008. It was started by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. It provides information, menus and user-reviews of restaurants, and also has food delivery options from partner restaurants in select cities.

January 10, 2020