Food delivery startup Zomato is currently the toast of India’s startup ecosystem.
As Zomato’s IPO opened applications from investors, congratulatory messages poured in from all parts of India’s startup ecosystem. Zomato is becoming the first Indian startup unicorn to go public, and founders, investors and even journalists heaped praise on Zomato.
Zomato itself started things off by tweeting how its heart was beating hard against its chest, a popular meme reference from the movie Hera Pheri.
Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal shared a single nervous emoji, capturing the momentous occassion.
Several startup founders sent their good wishes to Zomato. Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma asked Zomato to make it large. “Make it large Deepi! Best wishes for superb listing. Rooting for you man,” he tweeted.
Snapdeal CEO Kunal Bahl said that the line between customers and investors would get blurred with Zomato going public.
Times Internet’s Satyan Gajwani said he was very excited for Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal.
Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal said that Zomato was relentless.
Toppr founder Zishaan Hayath called Zomato’s IPO a landmark moment for India’s internet.
VCs also hailed Zomato’s IPO. Best wishes Deepinder Goyal & entire Zomato team. You have the entire Indian startup ecosystem behind you, wishing you all the best,” wrote Lightspeed’s Dev Khare.
Government officials also congratulated Zomato on its achievement. “Congrats @zomato for the highly successful 9375 Cr IPO & raising 4000 Cr from anchor investors ahead of IPO. Zomato has totally redefined the food service & delivery industry. Now present in 10,000 cities in 24 countries, their journey is truly inspirational & mind boggling. Gr8,” wrote Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.
And Zomato’s competitors too joined in the celebrations. “It’s a big day for Indian startups. We wish our friends well. Invest in something sweet to mark this occasion?” Swiggy cheekily sent out a notification to its users.
Zomato’s own investors, though, chose to go down the memory lane. Info Edge’s Sanjiv Bhikchandani shared a meme comparing Zomato CEO’s chubby photos from 2010 to his lean, mean look now. “How it started. How it’s going,” he tweeted.
Bhikchandi also shared a picture from Zomato’s office, where the company had tried to capture its progress over three decades. In the section ’10 years’, Zomato had added pictures of CEO Deepinder Goyal and other senior executives; it had empty photo frames for the ’20 years’ and ’30 years’ sections, in reminder to employees about how much longer Zomato had to go. “Anything good and meaningful takes decades to build,” Zomato wrote on the wall next to the pictures.
And a picture of Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal with Info Edge’s Sanjiv Bhikchandani and Sequoia’s Mohit Bhatnagar from today was also shared, with Bhikchandani wearing a t-shirt in Zomato’s trademark red.
And Zomato had reasons to be enthusiastic. Zomato’s IPO has seen an encouraging response, with the issue being subscribed 1.05 times on the first day itself. And while it remains to be seen how Zomato will perform at the stock markets, it’s clear that the IPO is a small step for Zomato, but a giant leap for India’s startup ecosystem.