The nascent but rapidly growing $11-billion domestic e-commerce market continues to draw big-ticket investments. On Wednesday, Delhi-based restaurant discovery service Zomato.com announced raising $60 million at a post-money valuation of $660 million.
This round of funding led by Info Edge and Vy Capital, along with existing investor Sequoia, will help Zomato accelerate its global expansion plans and new product development.
Zomato attracting the fresh round of funding follows Japan’s telecom and media major SoftBank late last month pumping in a cumulative $840 million into Snapdeal and Ola. The total investment in e-commerce firms has already crossed the $3-billion mark in the first 10 months of the year, which is nearly a fivefold jump from 2013.
The e-commerce market in India is projected to reach around $20 billion by 2015, largely fuelled by the growth of internet users and penetration of smartphones along with measures like e-tailers offering consumers the facility of cash on delivery in a country where the usage of credit cards is still not widespread.
What hearten those bullish on e-commerce is the projection by IAMAI and IMRB International on Wednesday that the number of internet users in the country is expected to grow 32% to 302 million this year from 213 million at the end of December last year.
