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 Zomato NSE 1.40 per cent's desire to invest in online grocery platform Grofers India and its wholesale company Hands-on Trades has been granted by India's anti-monopoly authority.


The Competition Commission of India (CCI) announced on Twitter on Friday that it had authorised Zomato's proposed acquisition of a 9.3% share in Grofers India and [Hands on Trades].


On May 7, ET reported that Deepinder Goyal's organisation was finalising a $100 million investment in the e-grocer at a $1 billion valuation. In June, the meal delivery app, which recently went public, applied to the CCI for permission to invest in Grofers.


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Grofers delivers orders to 7000 households in 15 minutes; Grofers' main focus is now on instant, fast delivery.


Zomato's investment is part of a bigger effort to re-enter the grocery delivery market, which rival competitor Swiggy is doubling down on with Instamart. Starting with Delhi-NCR, Zomato has reopened its own grocery marketplace, Zomato Market.

Goyal told ET in an exclusive interview that Grofers was the only significant online supermarket left standing, which encouraged Zomato to back it.

“We don’t have much idea (about online grocery) and are just trying to learn. We think it’s a big space, but we are not sure if we want to do it in the long term or not,” Last week, Goyal told ET. “The investment in Grofers is separate. We have our own grocery offering which is a marketplace model that went live in Delhi two-three days ago.”

Grofers received a $120 million investment from Zomato and Tiger Global in late June, valuing the company at just over $1 billion. Zomato and Grofers are both owned by Tiger Global.

On the BSE, Zomato shares surged 1.55 per cent to Rs 137.55 per share on Friday, while the benchmark Sensex rose 1.08 per cent to 55,437.29 points.

(Source: The Economic Times)