Zomato To Acquire Quick Grocery Delivery Platform Blinkit For Rs 4,447 Crore In All-Stock Deal

Online food delivery platform Zomato Ltd on Friday said it will acquire Blink Commerce Pvt Ltd (formerly known as Grofers India Pvt Ltd) for a total purchase consideration of Rs 4,447.48 crore in a share swap deal.

The company's board at a meeting held on Friday has approved acquisition of up to 33,018 equity shares of Blink Commerce Pvt Ltd from its shareholders for a total purchase consideration of Rs 4,447.48 crore at a price of Rs 13.45 lakh per equity share, Zomato said in a regulatory filing.

"We are proposing to acquire Blinkit, a quick commerce business in India and where we first invested in August last year. This foray into the next big category is timely as our existing food business is steadily growing towards profitability," said Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO at Zomato.

The deal value, however, is nearly 40 per cent lower than Blinkit's $1-billion valuation last year, when it turned unicorn by raising $120 million from Zomato and Tiger Global, reports Times of India.

Founded by Albinder Dhindsa, Blinkit was a rival to online grocery player BigBasket in the next-day delivery category before pivoting its business model in January to enter the 10-minute delivery space, currently dominated by brands such as Swiggy Instamart, Reliance-backed Dunzo, Zepto and Tata-owned BigBasket.

(With inputs from PTI)