Food delivery aggregator Zomato has acquired 33,000 shares of grocery delivery platform Blinkit in an all-stock deal worth Rs 4447 crore. The company said in a regulatory filing that its board had approved the acquisition of instant delivery ecommerce platform, formerly known as Grofers. zomato said that this acquisition is in line with Zomato’s strategy to invest in the Quick Commerce business. Zomato already holds one equity share and 3,248 preference shares or 9 per cent stake blinkit (formerly known as Grofers) at present.
“The Board of Directors of Zomato Limited in its meeting held today i.e. June 24, 2022, inter alia, considered and approved the acquisition of 33,018 equity shares of Blink Commerce Private Limited (earlier known as Grofers) Is. India Private Limited) by issue and allotment of up to 62,85,30,012 fully paid-up equity shares of the Company at a price of Rs 13,46,986.01 per equity share for a total purchase consideration of Rs 444 7,4 7,84,078. Zomato said in a BSE filing on Friday, June 24, a face value of Re 1 at a price of Rs 70.76 (seventy six and sixty six paise only) per equity share.
In a letter to shareholders that day, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal and the company’s chief financial officer Akshat Goyal talked about Blinkit’s dark stores. “Blinkit has visibility into inventory owned by third-party distributors and retailers who stock 4,000 SKUs across various product categories across its network of warehouses and distributed dark stores. Customers can view and order these products on the Blinkit app. Blinkit also facilitates last-mile delivery of products from dark stores to customers. The delivery radius for a dark store is usually less than 2 kms, which allows for quick delivery of products,” said Akshat Goyal said while observing the blinkit.
“Blinkit’s proprietary technology platform, business scale, relationships with third-party brands and vendors, and warehouse and dark store networks make it a compelling choice to buy versus build it in-house,” he said.
What are dark stores?
A dark store is a term used to refer to a retail distribution warehouse or center exclusively dedicated to those who shop online. A dark store serves as the lifeline of instant commerce platforms like Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart, which promise to deliver groceries to customers within 15 to 20 minutes. These dark stores recruit a number of employees, who are usually located within the range from which the customer orders. There are no customers at this micro-fulfillment center, and the staff packs and delivers the items ordered online at the customer’s doorstep. Dark Store’s proximity to customers’ locations helps in quick delivery of items.
How many dark stores does Blinkit have?
As of May 2022, Blinkit has 400 dark stores across India, Akshat Goyal said in his letter to shareholders. “Blinkit has also closed several unviable dark stores that were not scaling up. This has also reduced losses. The number of dark stores has come down to around 400 in May 2022, while it was over 450 in January 2022.” He also said that Zomato will expand the number of dark stores after the Blinkit deal on the basis of profits.
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