Swiggy, India’s largest online food delivery startup has raised $1 billion in fresh capital from both existing and new investors namely Naspers Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd. Swiggy is few of the companies which have the most significant funding ever in the country’s booming food-tech sector. With oodles of money in its pocket, Swiggy became the fifth most valuable startup in the country.
$800 million is guesstimated to of fresh funds of the total $1 billion. So far the popular startup raised $1.26 billion including the $1 billion Series H round. Apart from existing investors like Accel Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners, new investors brought $200 million worth of secondary shares from existing shareholders.
Earlier in June, Swiggy entered into the Unicorn club by a $210 million funding rounds. Paytm, Ola, Byju’s, and Oyo are ahead of Swiggy in valuation. Swiggy is competing with Zomato, UberEats and Ola’s Foodpanda.
Swiggy started as a late entrant to the market in 2014. But the online food ordering and a delivery market were not that attractive back then. Now it runs its operations at every place with its enticing offers to make the lakhs of tummies happy.
“We first partnered with Swiggy in April 2017 because we recognized the Swiggy team had built a sustainable, long-term business, that stood out among others in India. Now, nearly two years later, we have even more confidence Swiggy has the winning formula and will continue to build a leading business in the country,” said Larry Illg, chief executive officer (food and ventures) at Naspers.
Swiggy now has 10 times the number of orders every month expanding throughout India. The food startup company plans to use the funding to enhance the quality of food brands and expand its new markets and bolstering the capabilities. The company founded by Nandan Reddy, Majety and Rahul Jaimini, operates in nearly 15 cities and have more than 35,000 restaurant partners and a delivery fleet of 40,000 more.
