Info Edge (India) Limited, a leading internet company well known for its internet businesses - Naukri.com, Jeevansathi.com, 99acres.com and Shiksha.com, recently announced its fresh round of fourth investment of ₹55 crores in Zomato, the largest food and restaurant portal in India serving as an online food & nightlife guide.
This is in continuance to the previous investments of ₹31 crore Info Edge has made in Zomato through three previous rounds, taking the total investment count to ₹86 crores. As per the BSE filing, this fresh investment of ₹55 crore has been made through ordinary shares of Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd.
"Zomato is fast emerging as one of the finest Indian consumer internet businesses. It has a great team, a great brand, a super user experience, a dominant market share, an excellent revenue scale up with a known path to profit and a global opportunity. When the founders invited us to invest in the next round we were delighted to grab the opportunity. We are excited to partner with Zomato to build up the company further." Info Edge Founder & Executive Vice Chairman Sanjeev Bikhchandani said.
Zomato, started by IIT Delhi alumni, was launched in July 2008. It has listings for over 75,000 restaurants across five countries - India, United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, UAE and Qatar. India and UAE are its most dominant markets.
The Zomato website and mobile app provide extensive reviews and ratings for over 75,000 restaurants across 19 cities in these five countries featuring specifics like menu, contact details, pictures, directions, ratings and reviews. Its mobile app, one of the most popular apps in India, is drawing over a million downloads across different platforms making it an obstacle for other competitive entrants.
More than 1500 restaurants in India are noted to have paid Zomato towards their listings in the current financial year. The renewal rates for these deals between the website and the restaurants are in excess of 80%.
Providing a universal database for food and nightlife lovers, Zomato has catered to the interest of its audiences in an impressive way expanding its services across these countries over a span of four years. Headquartered in New Delhi, the company currently employs around 200 people in 19 cities. The company also contemplates additional country launches in line with their expansion plans by marking an entry into the Philippines and South Africa in the next few months.
Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Zomato said, "We plan to use these additional funds for product development, scaling up our sales team in various locations, and further international expansion. India is already a profitable business for us, and our UAE business is very close to breaking even. Info Edge has been a great partner for us -- we are excited about deepening this relationship with an aim to build a global internet business out of India."
