With latest funding, Zomato eyes aggressive growth of its new business verticalsRecently, Zomato made strategic investments in hyperlocal delivery start-ups Pickingo and Grab to enable last-mile delivery for restaurants.
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The restaurant search and discovery app Zomato has announced to secure $60 million in a fresh round of funding led by Singapore investment company Temasek, with participation from existing investor Vy Capital. This takes Zomato's total funding to $225 million, which comes from a close set of four investors - Info Edge, Sequoia India, Vy Capital, and now Temasek. With this round of funding, the firm plans to further grow its new business verticals.
Commenting on the investment, Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO, Zomato said, "We will use this round to make investments in our new businesses such as online ordering, table reservations, point of sales, and our newly launched Whitelabel platform. With this round, and with some of our markets turning profitable recently, Zomato is well capitalised for at least two years. We are also stoked to have Temasek partner with us, and are looking forward to building one of the largest food-tech companies in the world."
Apart from raising fund, Zomato has also announced the launch of its Whitelabel Platform, a full suite of technologies for restaurants to run their business on the internet. The key feature on the platform is the ability for restaurants to launch custom-branded native mobile apps to help them connect with and engage their customers, and operate at internet scale.
Founded in 2008, Zomato provides in-depth information for over 1.4 million restaurants across 22 countries. Zomato's core content features include restaurant information such as scanned menus and photos, sourced by its massive feet-on-street team across cities it is present in globally. Users can rate and review restaurants, as well as create their own personal network of foodies for trusted recommendations.
In addition to restaurant search and discovery, the start-up has expanded its offering to include in-app cashless payments, online ordering, table reservations and a Point-of-Sale system, creating cutting-edge technology to connect restaurant businesses and customers in ways that will revolutionise the restaurant industry. Available on web and mobile, Zomato sees over 90 million visits across its web and mobile platforms every month.
Headquartered in Gurgaon, Zomato employs over 3,000 people across 22 countries. Recently, Zomato has made strategic investments in Gurgaon-based Pickingo and Mumbai-based start-up Grab, both hyperlocal delivery players, to enable last-mile delivery for restaurants including dine-in-only restaurants that don't otherwise deliver.
