[Funding alert] Blinkit raises $100 million from Zomato

Online grocery shopping platform Blinkit (formerly Grofers) has closed an additional $100 million in funding as part of its ongoing fundraise.

People familiar with this information said that funds are being raised from Zomato through convertible notes, which will later be converted into equity and this is part of a larger $400 million funding Blinkit is looking to raise from Zomato and other investors, which is expected to close over the next two quarters.

This is in addition to a $100 million investment made in the company and its wholesale arm Hands On Trades last year, bringing the accelerated commerce startup’s valuation to $1 billion. In August 2021, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved this investment.

“Market conditions have affected Zomato, and thus Blinkit’s planned fundraising is expected. Funding is expected to be renegotiated with the new terms. First tranche of $100 million raised from Zomato” a person told in a statement.

In an internal note to Blinkit employees, Albinder Dhindsa wrote that the company will continue to focus on growth, reducing its burn rate and improving execution speed.

“We have closed our next fundraise ($100 million) and the money will be in the bank next week. We have come a long way in the last eight months by transforming the business into the largest instant commerce player in the space, our next chapter should give Amazon a run for its money,” he said.

“We are very bullish on the product market fit, unit economics, and accelerated commerce category growth trajectory. This reminds us of the food delivery category a few years back, when multiple platforms competed on a large and growing market, but ultimately only a few that deliver exceptional experiences to their customers survived,” Zomato said.

Gurgaon based e-grocery platform Founded in 2013 by Albinder Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar, Blinkit aims to be 100× retails in the next 5 years.

“We are becoming increasingly confident in our decision to invest behind market leadership here with healthy unit economics. As a result, we are updating the upper bound of our potential investments in this category to $400m cash over the next two years,” the company added.