Will India’s stock markets accept a loss-making company going public, and learn to value tech companies like private investors do? This question was emphatically answered with 13-year-old food tech start-up Zomato’s blockbuster IPO last month. The stock, which listed at Rs76 apiece, rose on listing and closed on Monday at Rs138.45. The listing appears to have opened the floodgates of tech IPOs as a number of start-ups are now lining up listings.
In his first interview since the landmark IPO, Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal, who started the company in 2008 as a menu listings platform and grew it to a $13 billion publicly traded food delivery company in 13 years, spoke to Sruthijith KK on a range of themes, including the IPO, competition, company culture, tackling mental health challenges, and plans for his wealth. Edited excerpts: