[The F word] Zomato raises an additional $210M from Ant Financial

Zomato raises new funding from Alibaba's payment affiliate Alipay Singapore, an existing shareholder in the foodtech firm.

After joining the unicorn club, media reports suggest that Zomato has picked up additional $210 million in funding from Ant Financial, Alibaba's payment affiliate. According to filings by Info Edge, which also holds stake in Zomato, its ownership in the Delhi-NCR based food delivery startup will drop to 27.68 percent from 30.91 percent, with this additional capital infusion by Ant Financial.

The Info Edge filing also stated that Zomato has signed an agreement to undertake a primary fund raise of close to $210 million from Alipay Singapore (Ant Financial). Reports suggest the investment will push up Zomato's valuation from $1.1 billion to $2 billion and take Ant's stake in the company to over 10 percent.

In February, Zomato had raised $150 million in funding from Ant Financial. The Alibaba affiliate had later even secured the right to become the largest shareholder in the foodtech startup. On the other hand, Zomato's rival Swiggy is currently believed to be in talks to raise an additional $600 million, at a valuation of $3 billion.

Late last week, Zomato also announced that it had hit 21 million monthly orders and had an online food delivery presence across 41 cities. Deepinder Goyal, the Co-founder, wrote: “This past Sunday, we crossed over a million orders — our greatest delivery milestone so far.”

Zomato joined the online food delivery market when Swiggy had already established its presence. Since then, the Delhi-based food delivery platform has been giving the Bengaluru unicorn a run for its money. Last month, Zomato announced its entry in the B2B foodtech space by acquiring TongueStun, a Bengaluru-based online caterer and office canteen aggregator.

Reports suggest the cash-and-stock deal was valued at $18 million. Zomato had last year acquired Runnr, the Bengaluru-based hyperlocal delivery platform, to up its delivery game and compete with Swiggy. The company has made over 12 acquisitions so far; most of the acquisitions were made in 2015 across different geographies.

It is interesting to see that both foodtech unicorns, Swiggy and Zomato, are in an aggressive growth battle. Swiggy has acquired 48East and Mumbai-based Scootsy, and has also launched Swiggy Access, Capital Assist, and Packaging Assist.