Zomato, a food delivery service that plans to enter public markets later this year, has agreed to invest $100 million in online grocer Grofers in exchange for a 10% share.
According to TechCrunch, the proposed investment puts Grofers, a seven-year-old business with SoftBank as its largest investor, at more than $1 billion.
Zomato’s anticipated investment is part of a larger round in which Tiger Global and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 are likely to participate. According to the article, Zomato stated that company had no remark to give and cited sources.
Grofers and Zomato’s leadership teams have long been good friends, and they began discussing this venture early this year.
Both companies are also open to the possibility of Zomato purchasing a majority interest in Grofers in the coming quarters, though no decision has been made and the possibility will not be fully examined until Zomato becomes a publicly traded business, according to a source.
Zomato, which purchased Uber’s Indian food delivery business early last year, has told some of its big investors that it sees a future in which the company has grown far beyond the food delivery sector, according to a person who requested anonymity because the discussions are private.
Grofers’ popularity has skyrocketed in the last year, as some Indian governments imposed stringent lockdown restrictions to stem the spread of the virus.
