Info Edge has invested Rs 55 crore in the online restaurant and events guide, Zomato, through ordinary shares as per a filing on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The company plans to use the capital raised for product development, strengthen its market share in existing markets, scale its sales operations in India and UAE and for further International expansion. It plans to expand to Philippines and South Africa in the next few months. Info Edge's Investment: Including this investment, Info Edge’s total investment in Zomato now stands at Rs 86 crore, and it now has a majority stake in the company, having 57.9% stake in Zomato. The company had previously invested Rs 31.06 crore across three rounds, including a 12.86 crore round in September 2012, a 13.5 crore round in September 2011 and a 4.7 crore round in 2010, and had owned 48.5% stake in Zomato. This investment follows the launch of Zomato's London operations last month. The company is now operational in five countries including India, United Kingdom, UAE, Sri Lanka, and Qatar and is operational in 13 cities in India. It claims to have listings for over 75,000 restaurants across 19 cities in 5 countries. The company had also launched in Singapore last year, however it decided to pull out few months later, since restaurants were not willing to share menus, and it was taking a lot of time to collect data compared to other markets Traffic Share: Zomato claims to have a 70% market traffic share among all online restaurant guides in India as per comscore metrics, with traffic growing by…
