Zomato loses $1 Bn📉, Bertelsmann India's $500 Mn fund💰, Byju's push back Aakash deal💸

Zomato loses about $1.1Bn of market value, Bertelsmann India raises $500 mn, Byju's pushes back payments for Aakash deal, Funding Deals and more.

Jun 29, 2022

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Zomato loses about $1.1Bn of market value in two days after Blinkit deal📉

Shares of Zomato fell as much as 8.2% on Tuesday, extending losses for a second straight day as investors questioned its purchase of quick commerce startup Blinkit.

Zomato said on Friday it would acquire Blinkit for Rs 4,447 crore ($568.16 million) in stock as it tries to gain a foothold in the fiercely competitive quick delivery market.

The company's shares have fallen as much as 14% since then, shedding nearly $1 billion in market capitalisation. They are also down nearly 48% since going public last July.

India’s quick-commerce sector is growing at a rapid clip, with rivals Swiggy, Reliance-backed Dunzo, Tata-backed BigBasket and Zepto making big investments.

Send to 3 ppl for Zomato's recovery🤞🏻

Bertelsmann India raises $500 million to make early-stage bets💰

Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), the venture capital arm of German media company Bertelsmann, has announced a new fund of around $500 million to invest in new startups as well as follow-on investments.

Under its Boost 25 strategy, the BII fund plans to invest between 5 billion and 7 billion euros by 2025, with a view to further increasing the group’s level of revenues and profits.

Additionally, indicating an intent to foray into early-stage investments, the VC firm said that it will look at making select Series A investments.

BII has invested in more than 17 companies and the current portfolio includes the likes of Eruditus, Licious, Shiprocket, Pepperfry, Agrostar, and Lendingkart, among many others. It has invested a total of about $285 million in startups to date.

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Byju's pushes back payments for billion-dollar Aakash deal💸

Byju’s sought a two-month extension from Blackstone and other shareholders of test-preparation provider Aakash Educational Services on payments that were due this week, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Blackstone and Aakash’s other shareholders agreed to the extension, the sources said.

Byju’s asked to push back the Aakash deal payments until late August because regulators are yet to clear the acquisition, said one of the sources, adding that it had nothing to do with cash shortages.

A Byju’s spokeswoman said the Aakash acquisition is “fully on track and all payments are expected to be completed by the agreed-upon date i.e. August 2022”.