Zomato staff in Kolkata protest ‘China funding’, company says employees were terminated

When contacted, a spokesperson for Zomato said, “This protest was conducted by a small number of delivery partners in Behala (Kolkata) who had their contracts terminated recently for repeatedly violating our platform guidelines. Unfortunately, in their spite, they decided to get themselves heard by riding the wave of a sensitive sentiment.”

The spokesperson added that Zomato’s other delivery partners had not participated in the protest.

Earlier this week, Zomato’s existing investor InfoEdge said it had not yet received $100 million from the $150 million it raised from Ant Financial in January. InfoEdge, which is a big shareholder in Zomato, said efforts were on to bring on board investors from outside of China.

Chinese investors – both strategic and financial – have pumped in $3.9 billion in 2019, up from $2 billion in 2018, in India, ET reported earlier. In the process, they have emerged as the biggest backers of the country’s fast-growing digital economy, supplanting the United States.

Unicorns including Paytm, Oyo, Ola, BigBasket, among others have raised capital from Chinese investors.

Last week, ET reported that India’s investor community had begun conversations with companies to diversify their China exposure and search for alternatives, including for production, supply chain and fundraising.