Indian food delivery giant Zomato files for $1.1 billion IPO
Zomato, the Indian startup that acquired Uber’s local food delivery business last year, is headed for a mega IPO.
The company on Wednesday filed for an initial public offering in Mumbai that could raise up to 82.5 billion rupees ($1.1 billion). That would be India’s biggest IPO so far this year, according to Dealogic.
In a filing to India’s stock market regulator, the food delivery upstart said it would issue new shares worth as much as 75 billion rupees ($1 billion). One of its shareholders, Indian tech firm Info Edge, will sell up to 7.5 billion rupees (about $100.6 million) worth of equity.
Zomato is also considering privately raising up to 15 billion rupees ($201.1 million) before it hits the market, which could reduce the amount it plans to raise publicly, it added.
Zomato was founded in New Delhi in 2008. The company has built a name for itself as one of India’s most successful startups, with a team of more than 5,000 employees that reaches more than 10,000 cities in two dozen countries, from Sri Lanka to Slovakia to South Africa.
The firm made international headlines last January for acquiring Uber Eats in India in exchange for handing the US tech company an almost 10% stake in its business. Users, restaurants and delivery workers on Uber’s platform at the time were shifted over to Zomato’s app.
The listing is a major moment for India’s tech industry.
Only a handful of Indian tech firms have held listings over the the last two decades. And no tech startup worth more than $1 billion has gone public. Walmart-owned Flipkart is the only Indian tech unicorn to have been acquired at a valuation of more than $1 billion.
Zomato was last valued at $5.4 billion, according to CB Insights. The startup declined to comment on Wednesday.
The IPO will also serve as another test for the closely watched global food delivery industry. Deliveroo’s IPO crashed in London last month despite great fanfare, becoming the city’s worst debut on record.
— Diksha Madhok contributed reporting.
