Zomato Founder Deepinder Goyal Sells Entire Stake in Blinkit, Formerly Known as Grofers

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posted on 2 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Goyal's exit comes at a time when Blinkit is looking to raise $500 million from Zomato in its fresh round of funding

Zomato’s chief executive officer (CEO) and founder Deepinder Goyal has exited from online grocery delivery platform Blinkit (previously Grofers). He sold his entire personal stakes to New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global. Goyal’s exit comes at a time when Blinkit is looking to raise $500 million from Zomato in its fresh round of funding. A Moneycontrol report quoting Deal Street Asia states that Goyal had first invested in Blinkit in 2015 and at the current valuation of the grocery delivery platform, he is expected to receive $2.86 million through this deal.

The deal was reportedly finalised over six months ago when Zomato agreed to invest $120 million in Blinkit along with Tiger Global at a valuation of a billion dollars.

Goyal’s personal exit from Blinkit comes in line with a series of similar moves in recent months. He sold his stakes in logistics aggregator Shiprocket reportedly at zero profit in December last year before Zomato could invest in the company. Goyal had invested in Shiprocket earlier in 2021.

Zomato has been on an investment spree in recent months as the company plans to deploy $1 billion in emerging startups over the next few years, with a focus on the quick commerce space.

Last month, the online food delivery company invested in ad tech firm Adonmo Pvt Ltd. Additionally, Zomato has invested $5 million in B2B software platform UrbanPiper Technology, $50 million in Magicpin, $75 million in Shiprocket, and $50 million in Curefit.

After its investment of $100 million in Blinkit, Zomato now owns 9.3 per cent of the company. However, the investment was made before Zomato’s public listing or decision to invest $1 billion in emerging startups. In July 2021, Zomato had a stellar public listing where it raised $1.25 billion through a fresh issue of equity shares of Rs 9,000 crore and a Rs 375 crore offer-for-sale (OFS) by existing investor Info Edge.

Meanwhile, Blinkit which previously operated with the brand name Grofers has been working aggressively to expand its footprint in the market. The company has set up 300 new partner stores across the country and offers 10 minute-delivery of groceries at the customer’s doorstep.

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