Swiggy enters unicorn club with $210 million funding from Naspers

Bengaluru: Swiggy raised $210 million from a group of investors, catapulting India’s largest food delivery service provider into a select club of startup unicorns with a valuation of $1 billion or more. The latest funding, led by Naspers and billionaire Yuri Milner’s DST Global, values Swiggy at roughly $1.3 billion, surpassing rival Zomato’s $1.1 billion valuation based on a February fund-raising round. China’s Meituan-Dianping has also invested in the latest funding round, along with new investor Coatue Management.

Swiggy, founded in August 2014, is one of the fastest entrants into the unicorn club. The latest fund-raising will add pressure on Zomato to raise additional funds quickly to keep pace with its Bengaluru-based rival in the online food-delivery business. Mint reported on 2 April that Zomato was in talks to raise $200-400 million.

Swiggy, which has emerged as the breakout consumer internet start-up of the past five years, has easily been the most prolific food delivery start-up in terms of its ability to continue raising funds from deep-pocketed foreign investors. It has raised about $465 million till date, according to Mint research. Barely four months ago, Swiggy raised $100 million from South African media giant Naspers.

Swiggy, which is by far India’s best-funded food delivery start-up, plans to use the funds to ramp up its supply-chain network and expand to new markets, the company said in a statement.

“With this investment, we will continue to widen Swiggy’s offerings, along with bolstering our capabilities and plugging the gaps in the on-demand delivery ecosystem,” said Sriharsha Majety, CEO and co-founder of Swiggy.

Mint had first reported on 2 April that both Swiggy and Zomato were in talks to raise more money. In early February, Zomato raised $150 million from Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group, valuing the food-tech start-up at about $1.1 billion.

Swiggy, which operates in 15 cities including Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Kolkata, claims to have more than 35,000 restaurant partners on its platform and a delivery fleet of over 40,000.

Founded by Majety, Nandan Reddy and Rahul Jaimini, Swiggy is one of the few consumer internet start-ups from 2014 that is thriving and consistently chased by large global investors. Smaller peers such as food-ordering app TinyOwl, grocery-ordering app PepperTap and real estate platform Housing.com have either been shut down or sold in distress deals. Some others, such as online grocery start-up Grofers, are struggling to attract new investors and have been unable to find a sustainable long-term business model.