Indian food delivery and restaurant aggregator
Zomato made a stellar market debut this week with its stock surging 65%, giving the startup a valuation of about $14 billion. The successful outing of the homegrown company is a milestone event for India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem as several others queue up to list. Berkshire Hathaway Inc-backed
Paytm, hospitality company
Ola, both backed by
SoftBank, are among other Indian startups set to test public market waters.
Zomato’s IPO outing shows that public markets can be more enthusiastic than private equity players in driving up valuations. Zomato’s close competitor
Swiggy was recently valued at less than two-fifths those levels, or $5.5 billion, after a $1.25-billion fundraising in the private markets.