Alibaba's affiliate Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group (Ant) has invested about USD 200 million in online food ordering app Zomato. A regulatory filing by BSE-listed Info Edge (a large shareholder in Zomato) said Zomato has signed a "definitive agreement to undertake a primary fund raise of an amount of approximately USD 150 million from Ant". In addition, the board of Info Edge has approved a proposal for divestment of 32,629 equity shares of Zomato for about USD 50 million to Ant, the filing added. "The Board of Directors... has accorded its approval...to allow divestment of 32,629 equity shares of Zomato Media... at a consideration of INR equivalent of USD 50 million," Info Edge said. While Zomato declined to comment, industry analysts said the deal values Zomato at over USD 1 billion. Post the two transactions, Info Edge's holding in Zomato will come down to 30.9 per cent, the filing said. The sale transaction is expected to be completed by April 15, 2018. Ant operates the world's largest mobile and online payment platform, Alipay that has 520 million Chinese users and over 200 financial institution partners in China. In addition to online payments, Alipay is expanding to in-store offline payments, both in China and outside. The consolidated net sales of Zomato -- which competes with players like Swiggy and UberEATS -- stood at Rs 332.2 crore during 2016-17. Zomato.com generates revenue from advertisements of restaurants and lead sales. Alibaba has been aggressively investing in the Indian market.
In 2015, it had invested in e-commerce major, Snapdeal. Recently, the Chinese firm pumped in USD 300 million in online grocery platform, bigbasket.
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