Journey of ZOMATO in India

Zomato is an indian restaurant aggregator and food delivery start-up founded by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in 2008. Zomato provides information, menus and user reviews of restaurants.
  •  Zomato- India's most used food directory was originally launched under the name 'Foodiebay' in 2008 zomato
  •  The founders were Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. Both are IIT Delhi graduates 
  •  It started with a simple foundational idea- an internet directory for restaurant menus. 
  • At some point Soon there was a severe lack of HR and business, which kept Foodlet struggling. This is when Pankaj Chaddah stepped in to help Deepinder's idea, and they began afresh by starting FoodieBay. Deepinder describes Pankaj as a “turning point for the company". 
 

Growth of the Company 

 Deepinder describes Pankaj as a "turning point for the company". The team of FoodieBay was just 6 in number but in a short span of 9 months, they became the biggest restaurant directory in the Delhi NCR region by late 2008. The service, after two years of operations, was renamed as Zomato in 2010.

Fundings 

  •  Between 2010 and 2013, Zomato received its biggest funding of approximately USD 16.7 million (INR 167, 000, 00) from "Info Edge India". This gave them a 57.9% stake in the company 
  •  In the November 2013, another lucky round of funding got a new investor to pitch in- Sequoia Capital. They with Info Edge took the total sum of that round to USD 37 million. 
  •  The total funding of Zomato by the beginning of 2015, was a promising USD 113 million. 

Growth 

  •  By 2011 the company after establishing a monopoly in Delhi NCR moved to cities like Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Ahmadabad. 
  •  It kept pace with the smartphone boom too, by introducing its mobile app at this point in time. 
  •  By 2012, overseas operations of Zomato started operating in full gear with the UAE, Sri Lanka, Qatar, United Kingdom, Philippines, and South Africa becoming a part of its user base. In 2013, countries like Turkey, Brazil, and New Zealand were also added to the list. 
  •  setback in the States happened when Zomato aquired Urbanspoon and rebranded the company as their own. This rebranding did not workout and the venture failed in a mammoth manner. 
  • The company has had its shares of ups and downs but has always emerged to survive. 2018 marks 10 eventful years of Zomato Media Pvt Ltd. and here is wishing them ten more.