Zomato closes $62 million funding from Temasek

As per the latest regulatory filings, sourced from Tofler, a total of 15,188 shares have been allotted to MacRitchie Investments, at an approximate share premium of ₹2.93 lakh.

Mint had reported on 22 August that MacRitchie may infuse at least $60 million in Zomato.

While Zomato didn’t respond to the query on valuation, according to Mint's estimate, the fund-raising is at a valuation of $3.25 billion, at par with its fund-raise in January.

In March, Zomato had also raised $5 million ( ₹38 crore) from Pacific Horizon Investment Trust, which is managed by UK-based Baillie Gifford & Co. Ltd.

The fundraise from Temasek, comes at a time when the Gurugram-based firm has been struggling to access the $100 million it was to receive, as a part of the $150 capital raise in January from Ant Financial.

Zomato had received the first tranche of $50 million from Ant Financial, a unit of Chinese internet giant Alibaba, in January.

But the tension between India and China, and the new foreign direct investment (FDI) norms made it difficult for Zomato and other Indian startups to access Chinese capital due to government restrictions.

This also led to some on-going fundraise talks between Indian startups and Chinese investors to fall through. India imposed stricter rules around foreign investments from neighbouring countries with effect from April, this year.

Zomato’s rival Swiggy holds a valuation of more than $3.6 billion, ascribed to it as a part of the $156 million round it raised in the first quarter of 2020, from Naspers, Meituan Dianping and Wellington Management Company.

Swiggy’s most recent round also saw participation from Ark Impact, Korea Investment Partners, Samsung Ventures, and Mirae Asset Capital Markets along with Tencent.

In July, Zomato said that its revenues doubled to $394 million, although it recorded a loss of $293 million, for the fiscal year 2019-20.

The covid-19 induced pandemic has severely affected the food aggregator business with delivery volumes averaging around 50% for the overall industry, at present. Nonetheless, players are reporting increased average value of orders, with the trend around bulk buying, as more individuals are ordering food for families.

In its latest report, Zomato estimated that business for the food delivery industry will come back to pre-covid levels in the next 2-3 months, with 70% of restaurants on its platform delivering food at present.

Zomato has also scaled down its online grocery vertical, Zomato Market, as it looks to continue its focus on improving food delivery experience for customers.

According to a recent HSBC Global Research report, Zomato could add $2 billion in market capitalisation to its stakeholder Info Edge over 3-4 years.