The initial public offer of online food delivery platform Zomato received bids for 345.13 crore shares as against 71.92 crore shares on offer on Thursday (15 July 2021), according to stock exchange data at 17:00 IST. The issue was subscribed 4.80 times.

The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) category was subscribed 7.07 times. The retail individual investors (RIIs) category was subscribed 4.73 times. The non-institutional investors (NIIs) category was subscribed 45%.

The issue opened for bidding on Wednesday (14 July 2021) and it will close on Friday (16 July 2021). The price band of the IPO is fixed at Rs 72-76 per share. An investor can bid for a minimum of 195 shares and in multiples thereof.

The IPO comprises a fresh issue of equity shares worth Rs 9,000 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) worth Rs 375 crore by existing investor, Info Edge (India).

Info Edge (India) pre-issue shareholding was 18.7%, which shall decrease to 15.2% at the upper price band of Rs 76.

Ahead of the IPO, the online food delivery and restaurant discovery platform raised Rs 4,197 crore from 186 anchor investors Tuesday (13 July). The company allotted 55.22 crore equity shares to anchor investors for Rs 76 per equity share.

Out of the 55.22 crore shares allocation, 18.41 crore shares were allotted to 19 domestic mutual funds such as SBI, Axis, Aditya Birla, Kotak, Mirae, Motilal, UTI, Nippon India, HDFC, IIFL, Sundaram, Tata, and Principal, among others.

The company proposes to utilize the net proceeds of the fresh issue towards funding organic and inorganic growth of the company amounting Rs 6,725 crore and balance towards general corporate purposes. The organic and inorganic growth initiatives, includes creating delivery as well as technology infrastructure. Beyond this, the company would focus on marketing and promotions towards customer and user acquisition activities, which involves acquisition and retention cost as well as market and branding cost. The funds would also be used towards new acquisition.

The company has also signed a definitive agreement with grocery e-tailer Grofers to invest a sum of Rs 780 crore (subject to regulatory approval) for a 9% stake in the company. It is a financial investment, but Zomato plans to diversify to grocery e-tailing as it provides immense opportunities.

Zomato reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 816.43 crore and sales of Rs 1,993.79 crore in the twelve months ended 31 March 2021.

Zomato is one of the leading Food Services technology platforms in India in terms of value of food sold, as of March 31, 2021. During Fiscal 2021, 32.1 million average monthly users visited the company's platform in India. As of March 31, 2021, the company is present in 525 cities in India, with 389,932 active restaurant listings. The company's mobile application is the most downloaded food and drinks application in India in each of the last three years since 2019 on iOS App store and Google Play combined, as per App Annie's estimates.

The company is present in 23 countries. However, the company earns majority of its revenues from India which contributed 90.6% of its total revenues in FY2021 while United Arab Emirates and Rest of the World contributing 6.1% and 3.1% of the total revenues in FY2021 respectively. The company is closing down or selling off large part of its international operations and going to focus only on Indian market.

Zomato is backed by Jack Ma's Ant Group. Ant group is the second largest shareholder (through Alipay 8.4% shareholding and Antifin 8.3% shareholding pre-IPO) in the company after Info Edge (18.7%). Apart from Ant group, the company is also backed by other investors including Temasek, Kora,Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital. Uber also has shareholding of 9.2% (pre-IPO) in Zomato, after Zomato acquired Uber Eats for a sum of Rs 2,485 crore in an all-stock deal.