Zomato completes acquisition of Paytm's entertainment ticketing biz

Food delivery giant Zomato on Wednesday completed the acquisition of fintech major Paytm’s entertainment ticketing business, Paytm Insider, both the companies said in regulatory filings.

Last week, Zomato announced that it was acquiring Paytm Insider for ~2,048 crore, in a bid to scale up its going-out business and add newer use cases.

Under the deal, Zomato has fully acquired Paytm’s movie ticketing business Orbgen Technologies Pvt Ltd (OTPL) for ~1,264.6 crore and its events ticketing business Wasteland Entertainment Pvt Ltd (WEPL) for ~783.8 crore.

The new business will be spun off into a separate going-out app, District, in the coming few weeks.

District will be Zomato’s third attempt at creating a “super brand” after the success of its food delivery business and quick commerce venture Blinkit. With the new vertical, Zomato is going after the largely unorganised live events and ticketing market.

According to Paytm’s regulatory filings, the transaction will generate “substantial profits” for Paytm, with the cash proceeds further bolstering the firm’s balance sheet for future growth.

“This deal reinforces our commitment to payments and financial services distribution. In recent quarters, we have expanded into insurance, equity broking, and wealth distribution, which offers significant opportunities to cross-sell these services and strengthen our position as a leading financial services distribution player,” the filings read.

With the acquisition, Zomato would become the second largest entertainment ticketing platform in the country, behind only market leader Bookmyshow, which currently has a share of around 75 per cent in the online ticketing space. 

As a result, Zomato has the potential to become significantly competitive in the entertainment and ticketing market, Business Standard had reported earlier.

As part of the transaction, 280 employees will move from Paytm to Zomato. There is no other major physical infrastructure being acquired. The transaction also includes a transition services agreement where the ticketing business will continue to run on the Paytm app for a period of up to 12 months to ensure a smooth transition of the business from Paytm to Zomato.