Zomato eyes $100 Mn funding at over $1.8 Bn valuation from China's Ctrip

The battle for foodtech crown in Indian startup ecosystem is at its culmination. At one hand Swiggy is in talks to raise a fresh round at over $2 billion valuation, the company's arch-rival Zomato is also looking to rake in over $100 million at a valuation in the range of $1.8-2 billion.

Surprisingly, Zomato is exploring China's Ctrip for the latest round which has only invested in MakeMyTrip in India. According to a TOI report, Ctrip will be joined by Alibaba's payment affiliate Ant Financial, an existing investor of the foodtech company. Besides, a couple of more investors may also join the deal.

Further, the report revealed that the funding round may go up to $400 million, which will be the largest capital infusion in a foodtech startup in India in a single round.

The deal, which is expected to close in two weeks will be a significant move for the Indian foodtech major to expand itself into the International market.

The development comes against the backdrop of Zomato and Swiggy's expanding their horizon to reach out to more customers through launching subscription program, beefing up monthly delivery, and adding more startups in their portfolio.

While Swiggy had acquired Mumbai-based on-demand delivery startup Scootsy, Zomato acquired caterers and restaurants aggregation platform TongueStun for about $18 million.

Both foodtech majors are also going through the delisting of non-licenced restaurant partners following the clampdown of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

The move by the food regulator is also expected to affect the monthly order run rate by these foodtech players, where Swiggy (15 million) claims more monthly order than Zomato.

If the deal goes through, it will be worthwhile to watch how Zomato grows in the International market. Currently, it has over 50,000 restaurants on its food delivery platform and over 1.4 million restaurants across the 24 countries.

The company witnessed a 45 per cent increase in its revenue to $74 million in FY18 from $51 million in FY17.