Zomato eyes $200m from Alibaba, may get the unicorn-tag back
According to reports, Zomato is currently engaged in negotiation with Alibaba and its payments affiliate Ant Financial to raise up to $200 million from them. If this funding round goes through successfully and the Chinese e-commerce giant picks up a major stake in the company, Zomato might finally get valued at $1.1 billion. This would give it the much coveted Unicorn tag. Here's more.
Zomato takes a large bite of the profit pie
On 6th April, food start-up Zomato had released an unaudited report of their performance. According to their blog posting, they managed to make $49 million in revenue in the fiscal year 2017. The report said that it was an 80% hike compared to its last year's performance. Zomato also said that they have managed to pull off profits by taking some drastic measures.
Ad revenues saw exponential growth
Zomato's advertising revenue, which was its primary revenue before it joined the food delivery segment, saw a 58% y-o-y growth to $38 million in 2017. It was cited that there has also been a steep 83% growth in productivity (revenue/headcount) in their ads business. Zomato said it has stopped taking advertisements from establishments that had poor ratings, so the users get only the best.
Its previous round
A term sheet has not been given yet. This deal, if made, will be a part of Alibaba and Alipay's global play as Zomato has a strong presence in Southeast Asia and also, the Middle East. In its last round, the online food ordering and restaurant discovery firm had raised $60 million from Temasek and Vy Capital and was valued at about $960 million.
