No matter the time, no matter the place, food will always be popular, and that popularity extends to food-related business. Take the app known as Zomato, for instance. It hasn’t even been six months since the company raked in $60 million in funding but it has already managed to raise another $50 million. The restaurant finder app has raised a total of $163 million, which it has used to acquire other companies such as Urbanspoon.
Barely five months after raising US$60 million, restaurant finder app Zomato has swallowed another US$50 million in a fresh round of funding from existing investor Info Edge, a public listed online classifieds firm, among others. Info Edge alone pitched in US$24 million. When contacted, Zomato refused to provide further details on the funding. This round brings the total funding in the six-year-old company to over US$163 million. Zomato has a presence in 22 countries, in many of which it is already the leading player. It claims to have a user base of about 40 million. Much of Zomato’s prior funding has been spent on overseas and national expansion. Last year, it went on an aggressive acquisitions spree, during which it acquired Urbanspoon, Yelp’s biggest competitor in the US. Besides regional expansion, the firm has also been making vertical expansions. It is working on transforming into an online food ordering site. Other funded players in India that provide these services include Rocket Internet-backed FoodPanda, and multiple VC-backed TinyOwl.