Online food service provider, Zomato, has incorporated Zomato Payments Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary.

Zomato (NSE: ZOMATO), the Indian online food delivery service that was recently listed with a blockbuster IPO on Indian bourses, and is backed by the likes of the Ant Group, Fidelity, and Tiger Global, is getting into payments processing. (YOURSTORY)

Payments subsidiary

The company has incorporated a new subsidiary, Zomato Payments Private Limited (ZPPL), to conduct the business of payment aggregator services and payment gateway services in conformity with the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India.

ZPPL has been incorporated with an authorized capital of Rs 20 Crores. However, the initial issued capital is Rs 100,000, comprising 10,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each.

In January, Zomato acquired a 100% stake in full-stack sports platform Fitso for Rs 100 crores. This was its first acquisition after it snapped up Uber Eats in January 2020. In July, the company said it was acquiring a 9.3% stake in e-grocer Grofers, according to a filing with the Competition Commission of India, in a move to re-enter the groceries delivery market.

Processing payments for both the food delivery, groceries, and fitness businesses under a single umbrella could potentially make strategic sense for the firm. More and more Indians have taken to digital commerce and online payments after the pandemic.

It may also be a leaf out of key rival Swiggy’s playbook – Swiggy last year launched its digital wallet ‘Swiggy Money’ in partnership with ICICI Bank (NSE: ICICIBANK).

With ZPPL, Zomato will invade the turfs of pure-play payments players such as Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe, and MobiKwik.

The company’s much-anticipated Rs 9,375-crore IPO opened for subscription on July 14-16 and saw a 38.25 times subscription from investors – the highest in 13 years among Indian IPOs valued at more than Rs 5,000 crore.

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