Swiggy's valuation rises to $10.7 billion after $700-million fundraise

Bengaluru: Food delivery platform Swiggy has closed a $700-million round led by US asset manager Invesco, the Bengaluru-based company said on Monday.
The latest capital infusion has nearly doubled Swiggy’s valuation to $10.7 billion, making it a decacorn, said two people aware of the deal details. A decacorn is a moniker for startups valued at over $10 billion. The company was valued at $5.5 billion earlier.

ET was first to report on September 28 that Invesco was leading Swiggy’s new financing round, and that the valuation jump was a re-rating exercise after rival Zomato’s bumper listing.

In the past week, Zomato’s stock had shaved off its July listing gains, much like the broader technology index globally. Its stock price dropped almost 20% on Monday to Rs 91 apiece at close of trade on the BSE, pegging market capitalisation at $9.64 billion. The Gurgaon-headquartered firm’s market cap had previously touched a high of $17 billion.

With the latest fundraise, Swiggy’s valuation has overtaken Zomato’s current market cap. In the process, Swiggy has also emerged as the second most valuable privately held startup after educational technology firm Byju's.

In a statement, Swiggy said its food delivery business nearly doubled in gross order value (GOV) in the last year. The fundraise will enable it to further accelerate growth on the core platform and make meaningful investments to grow its quick delivery business Instamart, it said.



“Instamart remains well-positioned to continue to lead the emerging quick commerce grocery space and is set to reach an annualised GMV (gross merchandise value) run rate of $1 billion in the next three quarters,” it said.

The company also said it would further strengthen investment in the broader ecosystem. ET earlier reported that Swiggy was in talks to invest in Bengaluru-based bike taxi startup Rapido as part of a $150-200 million round.

The fresh funding comes after Swiggy raised $1.25 billion from Japan’s SoftBank, Accel and existing investor Prosus, among others, in a financing round that extended from April to July last year.

A host of new investors such as Baron Capital Group, Sumeru Ventures, IIFL AMC Late Stage Tech Fund, Kotak, Axis Growth Avenues AIF- I, Sixteenth Street Capital, Ghisallo, Smile Group and Segantii Capital also participated in the latest funding round.


Existing investors Alpha Wave Global (formerly Falcon Edge Capital), Qatar Investment Authority, and ARK Impact, along with Swiggy’s long-term investor Prosus, also participated.

“The GMV that our food delivery business achieved in 40 months, took Instamart just 17 months, demonstrating the platform benefits of Swiggy,” said Sriharsha Majety, cofounder and chief executive, Swiggy. “We will double down on this to build more categories in line with our mission of offering unparalleled convenience to Indian consumers.”

Majety told ET in an interview last month that the company was committing $700 million to push Instamart.

Invesco’s investment in Swiggy signals that the food delivery company is exploring a public listing in the next few years, people in the know said.

“As long-term investors, the Invesco Developing Markets Fund seeks opportunities in the best companies in the world, led by world-class management teams, that have the potential for long-term structural growth... Swiggy represents such an investment,” said Justin Leverenz, chief investment officer, Invesco Developing Markets Fund.

Instant Delivery

Over the past few months, Swiggy has been making inroads in the much-contested instant grocery delivery space through Instamart, which aims to deliver groceries in 15-30 minutes through a network of seller-owned ‘dark’ stores.

Dark stores are small warehouses located in the heart of a city through which orders can be delivered faster.

Last month, Swiggy claimed that Instamart was clocking more than a million orders per week and was operating a network of 150 ‘dark’ stores across 18 cities. Currently, Instamart operates across 19 cities.

Swiggy’s quick commerce vertical faces serious competition from Zomato-backed Blinkit (previously Grofers), six-month old Zepto, as well as Ola, which has started pilots for its instant grocery service in Bengaluru and Mumbai.

ET reported previously that Blinkit was likely to receive $500 million from Zomato, while Zepto recently picked up $100 million, led by existing investor Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund. Zepto is valued at $570 million at present. Blinkit has plans to add another 100 dark stores in the coming months, in addition to the 200 dark stores it is already operating.