Zomato to raise $150 million from investor Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial

The fund infusion comes as Zomato pushes for a bigger market share in the highly competitive Indian food delivery space in a race with rivals. (Reuters)

India’s Zomato is raising $150 million from investor Ant Financial, an Alibaba affiliate, at a valuation of $3 billion for the food delivery startup. Zomato’s top shareholder Info Edge (India) Ltd said in a filing on Friday that after the funding its stake will drop to about 25.13%. It had a 26.38% stake, as of March last year.

The fund infusion comes as Zomato pushes for a bigger market share in the highly competitive Indian food delivery space in a race with rivals such as Tencent-backed Swiggy and Uber’s UberEats. The capital is part of a larger $500 million fundraising that is likely to close in the next two months, a business daily newspaper reported, citing a person with knowledge of the matter.

Zomato confirmed that the $150 million fundraise was part of a larger round, but did not give further details. The Gurugram-based restaurant aggregator recorded a loss of $294 million in the year ending March, compared with a loss of $12 million a year earlier as it burnt more cash in its Indian delivery business to grab new customers, unaudited figures from its annual report showed.