Zomato scoops up additional $146 mn in pre-IPO round

Gurugram headquartered food delivery unicorn Zomato has raised Rs 1,085 crore ($145.8 million as per exchange rates on dates of shares allotment) in an ongoing growth funding round from a clutch of global private equity funds, alternative asset management firms and hedge fund players.

Seoul-based Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, London-based Steadview Capital, New York-based Luxor Capital Group and Lugard Road Capital, and ASP India Fund have been allotted a total of 34,873 class J preference shares, as per regulatory filings made in reference to a board resolution on October 28.

Separately, in a regulatory filing made in reference to a board resolution on November 7, London Stock Exchange-listed Pacific Horizon Investment Trust has been allotted 1,265 class J preference shares.

The preference shares hold a face value of Rs 6,700 each.

Late October, the Info Edge-backed startup raised $52 million from New York-based investment firm Kora Investments, in an earlier tranche of the same round.

The fresh infusions are part of a targeted $600 million growth funding round, dubbed a Series J round, that Zomato intends to close before it hits the public market in 2021.

Read: Covid-19 pandemic whets startup appetites for public market outings

The company did not respond to TechCircle’s request for comment.

Co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal told Zomato employees last month that the company expected to launch an IPO by mid-2021. The company had $250 million in the bank from the ongoing round, he said in an email at the time, adding that it would raise a total of $600 million in the round before the IPO.

In January, it received $50 million in the first tranche of the round from Ant Financial. In September, it received $62 million from Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings and $104 million from Tiger Global Management.

Last month, Goyal said that food delivery volumes on the platform had returned to pre-Covid peaks in India. He added that a number of cities were witnessing over 120% of pre-Covid peaks, and expected the food delivery sector to continue to grow at about 15-25% month-on-month for the foreseeable future. Zomato had delivered a total of 9.2 crore orders since March 23, 2020, he tweeted.

The company doubled its year-on-year revenue to $394 million for the financial year 2019-20 from $192 million, even as its losses widened to $293 million from $277 million a year ago. It reported a revenue of $41 million with an EBITDA loss of $12 million during the Covid-19 hit June quarter of FY21.