How did Uber make a Billion Dollars from Zomato Listing? - Case Study

We are past the worst recession since the Indian independence in 1947, which was due to the COVID-19 onslaught. Though the dreadful pandemic hasn’t taken its exit yet from the country, the Indian market has started to boom with the listing of the shares from a bunch of companies, which certainly looks promising enough!

Zomato, India’s food delivery giant, has already launched its IPO on July 23, 2021, and that too with flying colors. Though the company exhibited a mammoth size of IPO at Rs 9,375 crores, the overall subscription of 38x was quite healthy. At the end of day 1, Zomato witnessed a 66% premium at Rs 125.85.

Zomato, with its successful IPO listing, has certainly been the talk of the town but one another company has parallelly been mentioned if not more. This is Uber, which seems to have largely benefitted with this listing of Zomato, and what is stranger is the fact that it hasn’t spent a single penny in the food aggregator business!

Uber’s Gain out of the Zomato IPO
How did Uber become the gainer in Zomato IPO?
Looking Back at the Uber Eats Deal of Zomato
Who else gained in Zomato IPO?
FAQ

Uber’s Gain out of the Zomato IPO

As soon as the Zomato listing closed for the day on July 23, 2021, people began talking about the sudden surge of the market value of Uber stakes. Yes, the market value of the stakes Uber has in Zomato, at the end of the day, was announced at Rs 9,000 crores ($1.2 billion). This baffled many, and even more so, when they heard that Uber didn’t spend a penny for such a fortune it made out of the Zomato IPO.

How did Uber become the gainer in Zomato IPO?

The recent gain of Uber may sound like the company has not spent anything to gain a considerable large sum and in reality, it is so. However, we need to recall that Uber has had its 9.19% shares in Zomato due to the latter’s acquisition of Uber Eats, which Zomato acquired back in 2020 at $206 million.

Along with making over a billion dollars in Zomato’s IPO, Uber also resigned from Uber Eats last year, which was on the verge of being a liability. Therefore, it was truly a win-win decision for Uber!

Looking Back at the Uber Eats Deal of Zomato

Launched in August 2014, Uber Eats started as a food delivery platform, which displayed menus from all the restaurants that were partnered with the app and helped the users order their favorite dishes, much like what we do in Zomato and Swiggy.

However, soon after the launch, Uber Eats started to pick up huge losses. The losses for the company started to pile up even more after the Covid-induced lockdown was announced. Furthermore, the losses of Uber Eats were tied to the overall losses that the cab aggregator was seeing, especially when more than half the world was observing lockdown.

During this time, the subsidiary of Uber had to resort to stringent measures like pay cuts and laying off employees. Uber Eats trimmed down its employee strength by 30% in hope that it would help the company get some gear, but when it failed, Uber thought of selling off its food delivery subsidiary.

It was on January 21, 2020, that the Indian division of Uber Eats was finally sold to none other than the food delivery giant, Zomato, in return for 9.99% stakes in Zomato, which was valued at around $180 million back then.

Who knew that this deal would be so profitable the next year itself?

According to Uber, the “fair value of the consideration” that it received for the Indian business of Uber Eats was $206 million, which included $35 million of “reimbursement of goods and services tax receivable from Zomato.”

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Who else gained in Zomato IPO?

Along with Zomato and Uber, the IPO was also a huge benefit for Info Edge, whose stocks saw a healthy rise in price and are currently worth Rs 15,000 crores. Deepinder Goyal, Zomato cofounder’s holdings, which were valued at 2,800 crores also witnessed a rise to Rs 5,500 crores.

Overall, it can be said that Zomato made a robust debut on the stock exchanges on Friday, July 23. The shares of the company started at ₹116 on the national stock exchange (NSE) and represented more than a 51% premium over the issue price of ₹76. Only 16 minutes past its listing, at 10.16 a.m., the market cap of Zomato breached ₹1 lakh crore. An amazing feat indeed!

Conclusion

Launched in 2008, Zomato was one of the startups that have truly emerged strong, standing as the biggest food delivery services in India, ahead of its arch-rivals, Swiggy, have amassed the strength of the years and is pacing towards a brighter future.

On such a successful first-day run of Zomato, the co-founder and CEO, Deepinder stated, "We are going to relentlessly focus on 10 years out and beyond, and are not going to alter our course for short-term profits at the cost of the long-term success of the company."

FAQ

Is Uber Eats owned by Zomato?

Yes, Uber sold its India business of Uber Eats to Zomato for a 9.99% stake.

When did Zomato acquire Uber?

Zomato acquired Uber Eats on 21st January, 2020.

Why did Uber Eats left India?

Uber Eats decided to quit its operation in India, to cut its global losses as it was fallen behind to keep up with the competition.