NAME: Vaibhav Kakkar
LAW FIRM: Saraf and Partners
COUNTRY: India
PRACTICE AREAS: Corporate and M&A
Corporate and M&A specialist Vaibhav Kakkar of Saraf and Partners wins our July lawyer of the month award for his leading role in the Zomato-Blinkit deal. Zomato acquired grocery delivery unicorn Blinkit for $575 million at the end of June. Despite an erosion of value – Blinkit was originally priced between $700 million and $750 million – the deal is a success for the SoftBank-backed startup, which had struggled to raise funds from investors over the past few quarters. Restaurant aggregator and food delivery giant Zomato will utilise its newest acquisition to bolster its instant grocery delivery offering.
Kakkar was part of the exodus from L&L Partners last summer, joining Mohit Saraf at new firm, Saraf and Partners. He is part of the management committee and based in New Delhi. In addition to general corporate and M&A work, Kakkar is also part of the regulatory practice. He spent his entire career, since graduating from university in 2006, at L&L Partners where he climbed the seniority rung until he became a partner in 2014. Kakkar has significant experience in the regulatory and transactional spaces, focusing on structuring cross-border deals and advising on foreign investment, company and securities laws. His sectoral expertise includes retail, financial services, real estate, telecommunications, gaming, hospitals and education.
Saraf and Partners acted for Zomato on all aspects of the M&A deal. Kakkar, Snigdhaneel Satpathy and Akshay Jain were the key partners and their team included senior associate Debarpan Ghosh, and associates Prabal De and Mincy Matthew. An IndusLaw team led by corporate partner Anindya Ghosh represented Blinkit.