Ant Financial, the financial services arm of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., has invested US$200 million in Indian food delivery firm Zomato Media Private Ltd.
The deal includes buying 6.66% of Zomato’s stake for US$50 million from Indian e-commerce and online classifieds company Info Edge India Ltd, and a definitive agreement to invest approximately US$150 million in Zomato, according to Info Edge’s statement.
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Info Edge will sell its stake either directly or through its wholly owned subsidiary Naukri Internet Services Ltd, an online recruitment portal. Naukri holds 6.81% of Zomato’s shares.
India’s food delivery market is expected to grow to US$3.1 billion in 2018, and continue to grow at an annual rate of 16.7% to US$5.7 billion in 2022, according to Statista Inc.
Alibaba has been actively investing in on-demand local services in China. Last May, Alibaba and Ant Financial led a US$1 billion funding round in Ele.me, a Chinese food ordering mobile app. Alibaba and Ant Financial also set up a joint venture Koube, also a local service app, and each invested RMB3 billion (US483.3 million) in it in 2015.
Koubei raised US$1.1 billion from Silver Lake, CDH Investments, Yunfeng Capital and Primavera Capital last January.
