Ant Financial Invests $210 million in Indian Delivery Unicorn Zomato

[SBUS-CXK]

1 min read　


On Oct. 15, it was reported that Ant Financial, the financial arm of Alibaba Group made a $210 million of strategic investment in the Indian delivery startup Zomato.

SEE ALSO: Ant Financial CEO Presents Company’s New Development Strategy

Founded in 2008, Zomato is an Indian version of Grubhub, providing delivery services and in-depth reviews on over 1.4 million restaurants across 23 countries. It allows users to search for and discover restaurants to eat out at or make online orders. The company is now in fierce competition with Swiggy, another online food delivery startup for market shares in India.

Zomato service map
According to Sina Tech, after the investment, Zomato’s parent company Info Edge would hold 27.68 percent, dropping from 30.91 percent, while Ant Financial holds over 10 percent of the shares. The market valuation of Zomato will also rise from $1.1 billion to around $2 billion.

In fact, this is not the first time Ant Financial invests in Zomato. According to Reuters, in February this year, Ant Financial invested $1500 million in Zomato. In 2013, Zomato received $37 million of investment from Sequoia Capital and previous investors. In September 2015, the company received $60 million of financing from investors led by Temasek Holdings and Vy Capital.

Ant Financial
The Indian delivery market has been a hot field for Chinese investors, attracting giants such as Meituan-Dianping, Didi Chuxing and Ctrip. In June this year, Swiggy received $210 million from its newest Series G funding, led by DST Global and South Africa’s Internet and entertainment group Naspers, with Meituan-Dianping as one of the participants. The funding pushed the valuation to $1.2 billion and made Swiggy a new member of India’s unicorn club.

https://pandaily.com/ant-financial-invests-210-million-in-indian-delivery-unicorn-zomato/

 

[SBUS-CXK]

Zomato Is Raising $210 Million From Alibaba’s Alipay Singapore

HIGHLIGHTS

• Zomato is raising $210 million from Alipay Singapore
• Alipay Singapore already invested in the company
• A regulatory filing by Info Edge (India) has confirmed the investment

Zomato has signed a definitive agreement to raise a primary funding of $210 million (roughly Rs. 886 crores) from Alibaba's online payment platform Alipay Singapore. The latest funding comes weeks after the food-ordering platform announced the acquisition of TongueStun, a Bengaluru-based startup that serves corporate catering space in six Indian cities, including Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, and Gurugram/ Noida. A regulatory filing by Info Edge (India) has revealed the latest Alipay investment in Zomato. An official spokesperson has also confirmed the move in response to an email query by Gadgets 360, without offering any additional comments.

"[W]e would like to bring to your knowledge that Zomato has signed a definitive agreement to undertake a primary fund raise of approximately $210 million from Alipay Singapore Holding Pte Ltd (which is an existing shareholder of Zomato) and/ or any of its affiliates, and upon the closing of this fund raise," the regulatory filing reads.

Info Edge (India) held 30.91 percent of the share capital of Zomato that has now been reduced to about 27.68 percent on "fully converted and diluted basis", as per the filing available on the BSE website.

In March, Zomato raised $150 million (roughly Rs. 1,109 crores) from China's Alibaba Group Holding at a valuation of more than $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,400 crores). Ant Financial Services Group, Alibaba's payment affiliate, additionally bought $50 million (roughly Rs. 369 crores) worth of shares in secondary purchases.


Launched in 2008 as a restaurant listing service, Zomato is presently available across 41 cities in India and has since added food ordering and table booking to its portfolio of services. The company is also touted to have over 54,000 restaurants on its platform and has 74,000 executives to fulfil its delivery requirements, as per the latest data provided by the company. It competes against the likes of Swiggy, Uber Eats, and Foodpanda that all are among the popular entities in the online food ordering market in India.

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/...llion-from-alibaba-s-alipay-singapore-1932195

 

[Ajaxpaul]

China is investing in India's future.

They will be rewarded.

 

[Gadkari]

It's a very good investment. I have switched over to zomato from Food Panda. Swiggy is rubbish.