Swiggy valued at nearly $5 billion after raising $800 million

Foodtech startup Swiggy has raised $800 million in its latest Series J round of financing with Falcon Edge Capital, Amansa Capital, Think Investments, Carmignac and Goldman Sachs joining as new investors, according to an internal memo sent by company founder Sriharsha Majety to employees.

Existing investors Accel and Prosus (previously Naspers) will also take part in the fundraising round, according to the memo sent on Monday and reviewed by Mint.

The fundraise will leapfrog Swiggy’s valuation to more than $4.9 billion from its previous ascribed valuation of $3.6 billion in 2020, a person aware of the fundraise talks said, requesting anonymity.

The person said that sovereign wealth funds Singapore’s GIC Pvt. Ltd and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) are also expected to join the ongoing round at a later stage, post which Swiggy is expected to close the fundraise.

Participation from GIC and QIA may swell the overall investment in the foodtech unicorn to almost $1 billion, the person said.

“Swiggy hasn’t closed the round yet since there might be additional interest from QIA and GIC. This funding comes at a time when foodtech has been recovering from the impact of the pandemic, and rival Zomato has also shored up funds,” the person said.

“The fundraise was also very heavily oversubscribed given the very positive investor sentiment towards Swiggy. This fundraise gives us a lot more firepower than the planned investment for our current business lines. Given our unfettered ambition though, we will continue to seed/experiment new offerings for the future that may be ready for investment later. We will just need to now relentlessly invent and execute over the next few years to build an enduring iconic company out of India,” Majety wrote in the memo to employees.

“The next 10-15 years offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for companies like Swiggy as the Indian middle class expands and our target segment for convenience grows to 500M (million) users over the period. Even globally, now everyone acknowledges the TAM (total addressable market) for the food delivery category and how it is still very, very early in India,” he wrote.

Funds from the latest round may flow in multiple tranches, said a second person aware of the talks. The fundraise comes at a time when India’s foodtech industry has recovered from the onslaught of covid.

Meanwhile, Zomato, which is looking to launch its initial share sale in June, has raised close to $910 million recently at a valuation of $5.4 billion.