Zomato, India’s popular food delivery platform, is eying an approximate $650 million initial public offering (IPO) in Mumbai on a valuation that last month was estimated at $5.4 billion, Bloomberg reported on Friday (March 19), citing sources.
Launched in 2008 and backed by Jack Ma’s Ant Group, Zomato anticipates filing a draft prospectus sometime in April with an anticipated listing in Mumbai by Sept. 30, according to the sources, per Bloomberg. The size of the IPO, valuation, and its execution could be revised, the sources said.
Based in Delhi, Zomato has a workforce topping 5,000 and is among the largest food aggregators around the globe, according to the company’s website. It has a presence in 24 countries and more than 10,000 cities.
Nykaa E-Retail Pvt, backed by TPG Capital, is planning to list Zomato locally and will seek a minimum valuation of $3 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Public filings worldwide have raised over $188 billion in 2021 and so far are tracking for the strongest quarter in a dozen years, Bloomberg data indicates.
Zomato is tracking to be among the first Indian tech startups looking to go public in 2021, The Economic Times reported earlier this month.
The Indian food delivery startup raised $250 million in February led by Kora Management, with participation from new and existing investors. The estimated valuation was $5.4 billion, a big jump from its value of $3.9 billion in December 2020.
Zomato partnered with Indian FinTech InCred to extend lines of credit to its restaurant partners. Although the food delivery business has survived the challenges brought by the coronavirus pandemic, the food service space is still struggling. InCred offers small business loans comprised of channel finance, term debt and capital debt in addition to education and personal loans.
The U.S.-based fast-food chain Wendy’s is teaming with India’s Rebel Foods and Sierra Nevada Restaurants to launch 250 ghost kitchens across the country. There are currently in excess of 6,800 Wendy’s in 30 markets globally, with nine brick-and-mortar locations in India.
Nu Holdings, the digital financial services platform operating across Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, increased its customer base by 22% in 2024 to reach a total of 114.2 million.
The company added 4.5 million customers in the fourth quarter and 20.4 million in the full year 2024, Nu Holdings said in a Thursday (Feb. 20) earnings release.
“2024 was a transformation year for Nu as we advanced our mission to empower millions across Latin America with accessible, transparent and low-cost financial services,” Nubank Founder and CEO David Vélez said in the release.
Nu Holdings also saw its revenue increase 58% year over year to reach $11.5 billion for the full year 2024, according to the release.
The company is pursuing a “Three Act Strategy” that includes building “the largest and most loved” retail banking franchise in Latin America, expanding beyond financial services, and becoming “a global AI-driven digital banking model,” according to an earnings presentation released Thursday.
In Brazil, Nu Holdings is building its customer base and purchase volume among high-income consumers, according to the earnings release. The company earned a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 84 among these customers in 2024.
In terms of its international expansion, the company saw 91% year-over-year growth of its customer base in Mexico, reaching 10 million customers in the country by the end of 2024, the release said.
Nu Holdings also diversified its offerings and expanded its addressable market in 2024 by launching its in-app travel planning service called NuTravel and its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service called NuCel, per the release.
“We advanced in all of our priorities with significant strides in our High-Income strategy in Brazil, expanded our footprint in Mexico, and broadened our portfolio with NuCel and NuTravel,” Vélez said in the release. “As we prepare to scale up our products and services globally, we remain focused on execution, customer-centric innovation and sustainable growth in our current markets.”
It was reported in January that Nu Holdings, which is domiciled in the Cayman Islands, is considering moving its legal domicile to Britain before beginning its planned global expansion.
“We are actively thinking what are some of the jurisdictions that make sense for us to consider, as we think about the next 10 years of global expansion,” Vélez told Reuters at the time.
In November, it was reported that digital banks, including Nubank, led Brazilian banks’ profitability improvements during the first half of 2024.
The director of supervision of Brazil’s central bank, Ailton de Aquino, said that digital banks have a “robust” credit model and that their evolution reflected the central bank’s efforts to promote innovation and competition.