​Hardly three months after raising $200 million from Ant Financials, Zomato is reportedly in talks to raise another fresh $200 million from Alibaba. Coincidentally, Zomato's competitor Swiggy is also close to raise fresh funds up to same amount of $200-million in a new financing round with participation from Yuri Milner’s DST Global, Coatue Management, and Meituan-Dianping, a Beijing, China-based food review and delivery giant.

In February, Alibababa had invested $200 million in Zomato through its affiliate Ant Financials, however this time, Alibaba is looking to directly back the Gurgaon-based food delivery startup in a $200-million financing round, which will peg Zomato’s valuation at $1.5 billion, according to the people privy to funding talks of Zomato.

According to sources cited in a Times of India report, while Zomato’s financing round is in an early stage, Swiggy has already closed its $200-million fund-raise, valuing it at $1 billion after the investment. Although, an official announcement Swiggy's fresh fund-raise is still awaited.

It may be recalled that the new fund-raise of Swiggy is coming at times when it was reported that beside delivering foods online, the startup is also close to start delivering medicines and grocery as it looks to diversify its business model and boost volume beyond just food ordering. This new service will be named as 'Dash'.

The decision of Alibaba to double its investment in Zomato comes right after the Alibaba group bought out China’s food delivery service Ele.me.

Uber, on other hand, is expected to invest $200 million into its food delivery business, UberEats, in India. While Ola, with its recently bought Foodpanda, has already anticipating a substantial growth of its food delivery business in line with other players by committing $200 million in it.

With infuse of fresh capital of about $800 Mn to $1 Bn in food delivery segment startups including all four -- Zomato, Siggy, UberEat and Ola's Foodpanda -- consumers in India can expect increased discounts and promotions, thanks to cut-throat competition ignited by upcoming funding spree into this segment.

Notably, the food delivery segment in India is heating up with new players like UberEats, Ola’s acquisition, for which Ola has committed to invest additional $200 million, to get the slice of food delivery business in India. And now, British food delivery unicorn startup Deliveroo entering the Indian market as well.

According to the sources tracking the sector, Swiggy is currently the largest online food delivery app with about 10 million orders per month while Zomato is clocking approximately 7.5 million orders monthly. Latest numbers for Foodpanda were 40,000 monthly orders, while UberEats was at 20,000-25,000.

Via - Economic Times | Top Image - InShorts.com
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