Festivities hit Zomato at 80% premium; Deepinder Goyal shares a heartfelt note

What started as an idea after a bad pizza delivery, has turned into a blockbuster listing debut. Zomato made a stellar debut on the Indian Stock Market after it opened at a 53% premium on the day of its listing. It has officially entered the “Top 100 Listed Companies” with a market cap of Rs 1 lakh crore. Zomato's share price surged as much as over 80% from its issue price. It traded over ₹137 per share in the opening deals. The foodtech is also the first Indian Startup Unicorn to create a frenzy as that of Facebook Inc, Happiest Minds, and Alibaba. Its debut marks a craze among new generation investors who are looking at investments in B2C online deals.

Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah (who left the company in 2018) started the company in 2008. The initial name - Foodiebay - marked it as a restaurant and food listing website which later developed into a full-fledged place for foodies to go. The company rebranded itself as Zomato Pvt Ltd. in 2010; which, a decade later is a blockbuster internet company. Talking to his shareholders, CEO Deepinder Goyal said, “It takes a village to raise a child”.

He thanked not only its investors but also other internet companies including  Flipkart, Amazon, Ola, Uber, Paytm. He thanked them for the foundations they laid over the years in India which enabled Zomato to take advantage of the internet space. “We stand proudly and humbly on the shoulders of giants, and we thank everyone for giving us, and so many other startups, the opportunity to look ahead into the future,” he further added. The company also mentioned its rival - Swiggy - calling itself and Swiggy “two of the best food delivery apps in the world today”.

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New business on the next turn

Zomato will soon launch a grocery section on its app, the company said on July 8. It confirmed its $100 million investment in SoftBank-backed online grocery firm Grofers while announcing its IPO. The conversation for a possible partnership has occurred in April 2020 post the first covid-lockdown. The Deepinder Goyal-led company has also forayed into the dietary food segment, also called nutraceuticals. Zomato’s HyperPure initiative also already caters to fresh and high-quality supplies like vegetables, fruits, groceries, and spices, to restaurants. Thus, this strategic investment in Grofers solidifies Zomato’s position in the overall food segment.

Diversity and Inclusion; a first of many

In August 2020. the foodtech announced that would give female employees up to 10 days of “period leave” per year. CEO Goyal stated that this is an effort to combat the stigma around the issue. “There shouldn’t be any shame or stigma attached to applying for a period leave,” Zomato chief executive Deepinder Goyal said in an email to staff on Saturday. “You should feel free to tell people on internal groups, or emails that you are on your period leave for the day,” he added. Not just women, Zomato has made this applicable for transgenders too. Realizing the graveness of gender disparity and the stigma around not just periods, but also sexual preferences, Zomato’s move is what millennials call “woke”.

The company also has an equal parental leave policy for – men, women, same-sex, surrogate, or adoptive parents. Further, four of its 8-member board are women. For Zomato, inclusion, not only means the top-level leaders but also women in its delivery fleet. The foodtech unicorn, in June, announced that it would increase the participation of women in its delivery fleet from its current 0.5% to 10% by 2021.