Swiggy eyes 100 mn customers using the app over 15 times a month in 10-15 years

Bengaluru: Swiggy, which is by far India’s best-funded food delivery start-up, has set ambitious targets for itself. The Bengaluru-headquartered firm aims to have 100 million customers transacting with it over 15 times a month in the next 10-15 years, said Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and chief executive officer, Swiggy, at Gigabytes, the company’s hyperlocal innovation summit, held on Friday.

Currently, Swiggy, India’s largest food ordering and delivery platform, clocks nearly 1.4 million food orders daily across India, compared with about 700,000 orders per day a year ago. Swiggy has a presence in over 500 cities and towns, 140,000 restaurants on its platform and 2.1 lakh active delivery partners.

“If some of our growth estimates come true, it won’t take long before we will be the third-largest source of employment in India,” said Majety.

While Majety did not directly say what will lead to the growth over the next decade, he cited Pods and Swiggy Daily and Swiggy POP, among others, as current growth catalysts. Pods refer to the Swiggy Access, a cloud kitchen business. Launched in November 2017, Swiggy Access allows its restaurant partners to set up kitchen spaces in neighbourhoods where they don’t currently operate, enabling expansion for its partners. Swiggy Daily allows users to schedule their meals in advance or opt for a daily, weekly or monthly subscription. Swiggy POP offers a curated menu of single-serve meals from neighborhood restaurants.

“We believe 75% of the demand will come from the supply which doesn’t exist today,” said Majety, adding that today Swiggy is the most frequently ordered service.

Swiggy has also been expanding beyond food. Last year, it acquired hyper-local delivery startup Supr Daily and has launched Swiggy Stores, a service to deliver household items like groceries, flowers, medicines, among others, at a customer’s doorstep. Last month, it launched Swiggy Go, an instant pick up and drop service to ship packages anywhere across a city.

“We want to be the kings of convenience,” said Majety.

Swiggy’s investors believe the company can deliver on its “convenience offerings.”

“Swiggy has been able to significantly enhance its consumer base, usage frequency, brand and mindshare through product expansions such as Swiggy Pop, Swiggy Access, Swiggy Stores, among several others. I believe that Swiggy has a long runway of growth,” said Niren Shah, managing director and the head of Norwest India, an investor in Swiggy.

Industry experts, however, say, costs, particularly of delivery partners, will increase substantially in the coming years and need to be taken into account for future forecasts.

“Minimum wages will become a reality. There could be rules that could put a tab on the weight carried by e-commerce/food delivery partners. With the “Make in India” initiative, a lot of young people will go to the manufacturing industry. We are set to see expensive labour force in future, which means companies will have to spend more on their on-ground staff,” said Harminder Sahni, founder, and managing director, Wazir Advisors, a retail consulting firm.

To be sure, for the year ended March 31, 2018, Swiggy’s losses rose 93% to ₹397 crore. Its revenue grew 232% to ₹422 crore.