Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate of e-commerce group Alibaba, has invested $150m in India-based food listings and ordering service Zomato, the Economic Times reported today, citing people familiar with the matter.
The funding will make up part of a larger round that is expected to close at approximately $500m by the end of March this year. It values the company at $3bn.
Zomato’s core business is its online restaurant listings platform but it has invested heavily in linking that to an online food ordering and delivery service. It will use the cash to expand and compete against its main rival in India, Swiggy.
The funding was secured as Zomato continues talks with US-headquartered ride hailing service Uber over the acquisition of the Indian branch of its Uber Eats food delivery subsidiary. Sources told ET the prospective deal will involve a share-swap valued at $300m.
The company had previously raised $690m, having received $50m from food delivery platform Delivery Hero in March 2019 that increased its last round to $315m.
Ant Financial contributed $210m to the round in late 2018, increasing its stake to 23% at the time, and the rest came from Glade Brook Capital, Shunwei Capital and Saturn Shine. The corporate invested $200m in Zomato in early 2018 at a $1.1bn valuation, also buying shares from classified listings operator Info Edge.
Info Edge had provided most of the company’s earlier funding and held a slim majority stake as recently as its 2015 series F round. Its other early backers include Sequoia Capital, Vy Capital and Temasek.
