Online food delivery company Zomato and grocery deliver firm Blinkit have agreed on an all-stock deal for merger. This deal values Blinkit between $700 million and $750 million that’s lower than its previous valuation of a little over $1 billion.
After the merger, Blinkit’s largest investor SoftBank Vision Fund will also get around 4 percent stake in Zomato. It is worth noting that Softbank is already an investor in Zomato’s rival Swiggy.
Blinkit, formerly called Grofers, is struggling to raise new funds from new or existing investors for the past few quarters. The company raised last funding of $100 milion from Zomato and became a unicorn. Blinkit has been struggling for the past few months. It laid staffs and also delayed vendor payments. The company also had to shut down approximately 40 dark stores in the past few months due to funding issues.
The company announced rebranding from Grofers to Blinkit back in December 2021 and shifted focuse to instant grocery delivery. Now the company is pushing its 10-minute grocery deliveries in several cities.
After completely owning Blinkit, Zomato will finally be into instant grocery delivery space where it tried its luck in the past and failed.
Now the two companies will have to wait for the approval from the Indian antitrust watchdog Competition Commission of India.
