Food delivery company Zomato has closed a $660 million investment round from marquee investors and is currently in the process of closing a $140 million secondary transaction, Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said in a Twitter thread.
Ten new investors, including Tiger Global, Kora, Luxor, Fidelity (FMR), D1 Capital, Baillie Gifford, Mirae, and Steadview, participated in the funding round, he announced on the microblogging site.
As it is in the process of closing a $140 million secondary transaction the company has already provided liquidity worth $30 million to its ex-employee.
In series of tweets, Goyal said “I am grateful for their contribution in building @Zomato and am glad that we created some wealth for these super amazing people. A number of these ex-Zomans are busy working on their own startups and will not need to raise seed capital from external investors,” Goyal added.
Amid Covid, as the entire economy faced headwinds, the foodtech sector saw a significant impact with negligible orders and fewer operational restaurants. The company had laid off nearly 600 employees , which is abround 13 per cent of its workforce due to Covid impact, according to an internal note by Goyal written to employees in May.
However, the tailwinds for food delivery businesses are clearly visible, and the growth of the sector will accelerate post COVID-19 vaccine, he adds.
The food delivery startup plans to go public next year, CEO Goyal had told employees in September. The company plans to file for an initial public offering (IPO) in the first half of next year, although whether it will list in India or the US is unclear.
