Indian classifieds and advertising company Info Edge has upped its holding in the restaurant review site Zomato.com in by investing $2.3m in the latest round of funding.
Info Edge, runs the recruitment site Naukri.com and other classifieds such as the matrimonial site Jeevansathi.com and real estate portal 99acres.com, has increased its stake – from an original investment of $47m in June 2010 – in Zomato Media, that runs Zomato.com, a site providing restaurant reviews.
This round of investment sees Info Edge’s total stake in Zomato increase to 48.5 per cent stake in the site – known as Foodiebay.com until November 2010.
The company was set up by IIT Delhi alumni and ex-Bain and Company employees Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in July 2008 having received start-up funding from Bain to kick-start marketing efforts. Prior to the current round, it has raised two rounds of growth funding from Info Edge in August 2010 and September 2011.
According to co-founder, Pankaj Chaddah, the new funding injection raised will used for international expansion. “We have already launched our portal in Dubai and have a team at Singapore. Our India operations would break even in six months from now. So this capital has been primarily raised for international expansion,” he said.
In the last fortnight, Zomato launched its Dubai operations and is attracting some 5,000 users a day and received around 1,500 reviews having also recently branched out to Singapore with Moscow and Hong Kong being the next target destinations.
Last month, Info Edge invested $6.5 million in Bangalore-based online photography company Canvera Digital Technologies Pvt Ltd and last week plumbed a further $900,000 into the members-only sales portal, 99laels.com – selling everything from perfumes to décor at up to 90 per cent discounts – making a total investment of $4.5m in the past two years.