Zomato Ltd. Founder Deepinder Goyal becomes a poster boy for India’s fledgling startup fraternity with a 66% stock jump and he is close to touching the $1 billion mark.
On this occasion, he tweeted, “Never been so excited and indifferent at the same time. #ZomatoIPO”
Although this is far behind Mukhesh Ambani’s net worth (around $80 billion) and dozens of other Indian industrialists, Goyal could potentially lead the Billionaires’ race.
As per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, based on the current Zomato stake of 4.7%, Goyal’s worth stands at $650 million. He also has options of over 368 million to vest over the coming six years. This indicates if exercise, his stake would be double in Zomato that now has a market capitalisation of $13.3 billion.
Taking to Twitter, Deepinder Goyal wrote, “A lot of people are calling this is a ‘historical moment’. It is Not. History is always made in hindsight. Never in the present. Back to work.”
To date, those who top the $1 billion mark are Byju Raveendran of online education provider Byju’s, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal of online retailer Flipkart, and Vijay Shekhar Sharma of digital payments pioneer Paytm.
The credits for the IPO triumph go to Goyal and the two teachers who co-founded his company in 2008. India had witnessed $6.3 billion of funding and deals for technology startups in the second quarter, increasing venture-capital interest in the world’s second-most populous market.
“Today is a big day for us,” Goyal said in a blog posting on July 23. “But we couldn’t have gotten here without the incredible efforts of India’s entire internet ecosystem.”
Zomato is the first of this generation among the Indian internet unicorns to lead local capital markets. It also opens up doors for India’s retail investors.
The idea of launching such online food delivery services came into Goyal’s head when he was studying at the Indian Institute of Technology, and he became frustrated over a pizza order. He then graduated and joined Bain & Co. There he noticed colleagues talking about food at nearby restaurants as the company has a limited menu in the cafeteria.
Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, a colleague, started uploading menus of nearby cafes and restaurants onto the company intranet along with phone numbers. This became a great deal among his coworkers. After some time, Goyal quit his job to become a full-time entrepreneur.
He initially started foodiebay.com, which was later changed to Zomato and its services caught the attention of Sanjeev Bikhchandani, internet pioneer of Info Edge India. With time, global investors like Sequoia Capital, Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co., Tiger Global Management and many others started joining Zomato as backers.
The Gurgaon based startup has been soaring globally since then. Having a wide range of options such as a guide on table bookings, home delivery, restaurant, and nightlife, today, Zomato is available in 100 cities in India and worldwide, including Turkey, Brazil, and Indonesia.
