India food delivery player Zomato raises $195m

Luxor and Kora are contributing $60 million and $50 million, respectively. Mirae Asset is participating alongside internet services provider Naver via the Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, which was set up last year with KRW1 trillion ($861.4 million). The fund is providing $40 million.

Additional investors include UK-based Steadview Capital and Baillie Gifford, as well as US-based Bow Wave Capital, each of which contributed $20 million to the round. The round values Zomato at $3.6 billion, according to a filing.

It comes two months after Tiger Global Management and Temasek Holdings provided a combined $160 million at a valuation of $3.3 billion and less than a year after a $150 million investment from Ant Financial. Zomato has raised more than $1 billion to date, with previous investors also including Shunwei Capital, Sequoia Capital India, and Info Edge India. The latter now holds a 20.8% stake on a fully converted and diluted basis.

Zomato’s operations extend across food delivery, restaurant search and ratings, table reservations, restaurant ingredients supply, and grocery delivery. It services about 70 million users a month in 10,000 cities across 24 countries. Revenue is generated via commissions on orders, membership programs, and advertisements. Revenue came to $394 million in the 2020 financial year, up from $192 million in 2019.

However, in the first quarter of the 2021 financial year, revenue came to only $41 million, with Zomato citing macroeconomic pressures related to the pandemic. Earlier this year, the company reportedly laid off 13% of its staff, cut salaries for all employees by up to 50%, and projected its restaurant network would shrink by up to 40% over the next 12 months.

“While COVID-19 has impacted the size of our business, it has accelerated our journey to profitability,” Zomato said in July. “In terms of the size of the business, COVID-19 has set us back by a year or so – but a year is only a small blip when you are building a company for the next 100 years.”

Zomato is planning for an IPO next year and claimed to have $250 million in cash as of September, according to Livement, which cited an email from CEO Deepinder Goyal to employees. Efforts to build-out the company in the meantime have included the acquisition of rival Uber Eats India in January for an undisclosed sum. More M&A activity is expected.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Expansion
• Technology
• India
• Steadview Capital
• TMT
• Logistics
• Food