Zomato offers to acquire logistics platform Shiprocket for $2 billion: Report

Online food platform Zomato has made an offer to acquire homegrown logistics solution provider Shiprocket for close to $2 billion (more than Rs 16,600 crore), media reported on Thursday.

Zomato has made an offer to buy the company and no final decision has been taken on the deal yet, reports Bloomberg, citing people aware of the development.

In August last year, Zomato-backed Shiprocket, also backed by Info Edge, Temasek and Lightrock, raised $33.5 million that took its valuation to around $1.2 billion.

Zomato, in the same month, completed the acquisition of quick commerce company Blinkit (formerly Grofers) and its warehousing and auxiliary services business. Zomato's board approved the Rs 4,447 crore transaction to acquire Blinkit. The ancillary business was bought for Rs 61 crore.

Meanwhile, Shiprocket is reportedly in talks with top VC firms for a fund-raise upto $75-100 million, led by US-based investment firm Tribe Capital. According to a TechCrunch report last week, citing sources, "the funding talks are ongoing and the terms may change". Both Tribe Capital and Shiprocket did not comment on the report.

Bengaluru-headquartered Shiprocket aims to become IPO-ready in the next 12 to 18 months. It aims to disburse around Rs 100 crore to SMBs in the next 12 months.

Launched in 2017, Shiprocket provides a technology stack to help retailers integrate their shopping websites on Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, Zoho, and others. Shiprocket also offers state-of-the-art fulfillment solutions with more than 45 warehouses located across the country.

Meanwhile, Zomato is busy offloading shares in bulk deals, mostly led by Japanese investment giant SoftBank. Another foreign institutional investor, Tiger Global Management, offloaded its entire shareholding of 1.44 per cent in Zomato in August. The deal earned Tiger Global a total of Rs 1,123.85 crore.

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