Eternal Limited

Eternal Limited (formerly Zomato Limited) is an Indian technology company, based in Gurugram, Haryana. It is the parent company of food delivery platform Zomato, quick-commerce company Blinkit, events and ticketing platform District, and food supply business Hyperpure.[5]

History

On 18 January 2010, Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah incorporated DC Foodiebay Online Services Pvt Ltd.[1] The company operated Foodiebay, a restaurant-listing-and-recommendation website they had started in 2008 while working for Bain & Company. They later renamed the website Zomato as they were unsure if they would "just stick to food" and to avoid a potential naming conflict with eBay.[6][7][8]

In 2011, Zomato expanded its restaurant discovery and local search services across various cities in India.[9] From 2012, it expanded internationally, and was operating in 21 countries by early 2015.

In July 2014, the company made its first acquisition by buying New Zealand-based MenuMania.[10] The company pursued other acquisitions including lunchtime.cz and obedovat.sk for a combined US$3.25 million,[11] followed by Poland-based restaurant search service Gastronauci[12] and Italian restaurant search service Cibando.[13]

In January 2015, it acquired Seattle-based food portal, Urbanspoon, for an estimated US$60 million.[14] Later that year, it acquired Turkish company Mekanist in an all-cash deal.[15]

In March 2015, Zomato started its food delivery service in India,[16] initially partnering with hyperlocal logistics companies such as Delhivery, Grab and Runnr to fulfill deliveries from restaurants that did not have their own delivery service.[17] The company's subsequent acquisitions such as the Delhi-based startup MapleGraph that built MaplePOS (renamed Zomato Base),[18] table reservation and restaurant management platform NexTable (renamed Zomato Book),[19] and Gurgaon-based logistics technology startup Sparse Labs (renamed Zomato Trace) were integrated with Zomato.[20] In 2017, it acquired the delivery startup Runnr.[21]

In 2017, the firm announced the launch of Zomato Infrastructure Services, a cloud kitchen infrastructure service provider for partner restaurants.[22] In 2018, the company shut down operations of Zomato Infrastructure Services.[23] The company then acquired Wotu Technologies and rebranded it as Hyperpure to supply food ingredients such as grains, vegetables and meat to restaurants from its warehouses.[24][25]

In September 2018, the company acquired Bengaluru-based food e-marketplace, TongueStun Food, for about US$18 million in a cash and stock deal.[26] In December 2018, it acquired a Lucknow-based drone startup, TechEagle Innovations for an undisclosed amount,[27] aiming to start drone-based food delivery in India using a hub-to-hub delivery network.[28]

In December 2018, it launched its annual multi-city food and entertainment carnival called Zomaland.[29]

In January 2020, the company acquired Uber Eats' India business in an all-stock deal, giving Uber a 9.99% stake in the company.[30]

In July 2021, the company went public, opening its initial public offering at a valuation of over US$8 billion.[31] In November 2021, it acquired a 16% stake in hyperlocal e-commerce company Magicpin, 8% stake in logistics company Shiprocket and a 6.4% stake in fitness startup CureFit.[32]

In June 2022, the company announced the acquisition of quick-commerce company Blinkit for US$568 million.[33]

In October 2023, the company started offering hyperlocal package delivery service on a new app called Xtreme.[34] The service was shut down in July 2024.[35]

In August 2024, it acquired Paytm's event ticketing subsidiaries Wasteland Entertainment Private Limited (WEPL) and Orbgen Technologies Private Limited (OTPL) for $244.2 million.[36] In November 2024, the company launched its events and ticketing app called "District" after consolidating WEPL and OTPL.[37]

In February 2025, Zomato Limited was renamed as Eternal Limited.[5][38]

Funding

• 2010–2013: It raised approximately US$16.7 million from Info Edge across four rounds; Info Edge held a 57.9% stake in Eternal Limited in February 2013.[39] In November 2013, Eternal Limited raised US$37 million from Sequoia Capital and Info Edge.[40]
• November 2014: It completed another round of funding of US$60 million at a post-money valuation of ~US$660 million.[41] This round of funding was being led jointly by Info Edge and Vy Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital.[42]
• April 2015: Info Edge, Vy Capital and Sequoia Capital led another round of funding for US$50 million.[43] This was followed by another US$60 million funding led by Temasek, a Singapore government-owned investment company, along with Vy Capital in September.[44]
• February 2018: It became a unicorn startup after raising US$200 million from Ant Financial at a valuation of US$1.1 billion.[45] In October 2018, It reported that it would raise an additional $210 million from Ant Financial at a valuation of around $2 billion.[46]
• September 2020: It raised $62 million from Temasek, after previously committed investment from Ant Financial did not come through.[47] In October 2020, as part of a Series J round of funding, Zomato raised $52 million from Kora, a US-based investment firm.[48]
• February 2021: It raised US$250 million from five investors, including Tiger Global Management, at a valuation of US$5.4 billion.[49]

External links