Online restaurant guide Zomato has raised $60 million (around Rs 370 crore) co-led by new investor Vy Capital and existing investor Info Edge* with participation from Sequoia Capital. This investment has been raised at a valuation of around $660 million.
Of this, Info Edge has invested Rs 185 crore and continues to own majority 50.1% stake in Zomato. The company has invested around Rs 327 crore into the Zomato until now. (Also read: Info Edge: “We would be reluctant to reduce stake below 50% in Zomato”)
Overall, Zomato has raised over $113 million investment across multiple rounds until now. This includes $37 million from Info Edge and Sequoia Capital in November last year, Rs 55 crore from Info Edge in Feb 2013, Rs 12.86 crore from Info Edge in September 2012, Rs 13.5 crore from Info Edge in September 2011 and Rs 4.7 crore in 2010.
The company plans to use this investment for its global expansion plans and new product development. Over the next year, Zomato plans to expand to 14 more countries across Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Americas.
Over the past year or so, Zomato has been quite aggressive with its International rollout, launching its operations in a new market almost every month, with the most recent one being Lebanon’s Beirut earlier this month and Canada last month. The company is also actively acquiring companies to enter new markets worldwide. It has acquired four companies until now including MenuMania in New Zealand, Lunchtime in the Czech Republic, Obedovat in Slovakia, and Gastronauci in Poland.
Zomato is currently present in 18 countries and claims to provide restaurant information for more than 300,000 restaurants. It claims to generate around 30 million visits across its web and mobile offerings every month, of which more than 50% is from mobile apps.
Interestingly, during Info Edge earnings conference call earlier this month, when Info Edge founder and vice chairman Sanjeev Bikhchandani was asked whether Zomato needs to raise investment again or they have sufficient funds, he had said it depends on how fast Zomato wants to grow. “If they want to go into 10 or 12 new markets or new countries over the next few months, the burn will go up and then they don’t have money to do this for years”.
He had also mentioned that it makes sense for Zomato to expand faster than slower “given the sort of ambitions they have and the size of the opportunity and the fact that there is wide empty space out there.” Bikhchandani also noted that Zomato “seems to have a play book that results in traffic leadership in 9 to 12 months on depending how they go into markets and possibly monetization in 15 to 20 months”. More on that here.
For the year ended March 31, 2014, Zomato had reported revenues of Rs 30.6 crore, nearly tripling from Rs 11.38 crore in the previous year.
Also read:
– Zomato acquires restaurant guide Gastronauci to enter Poland
– Zomato acquires Lunchtime & Obedovat for $3.25M to enter Czech Republic & Slovakia
– Social ke side effects; Zomato rolls back mandatory login on the web
– Zomato strengthens its South American presence with Chile launch
*Disclosure: Info Edge is an advertiser with Medianama
