While the investor interest in food-tech startups, especially delivery ones, had completely vanished but Swiggy seems to be faring quite well. The widely popular online food delivery startup is reportedly in talks with potential investors to raise around $50 million in a fresh funding round. The new funding will give the company significant financial heft over its rival Zomato.
As per the report from LiveMint, Swiggy is in talks with South African media company Naspers Ltd and Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Ltd to raise fresh capital. Further, the report also suggests that the existing investors of the company are likely to participate in this new round.
A person aware of the development said:
Swiggy has ample cash in the bank but they want to strengthen the war chest further. With this round, they will get some financial cushion. The existing investors are likely to pool in at least $20 million.
At the time of raising $15 million in its Series D round, the online food delivery startup had announced plans to fuel its next growth phase with the picked up capital. In line to its strategy, the company expanded its services in Delhi-NCR last month. Swiggy will soon start servicing Faridabad, Noida Expressway and Greater Noida, and will also extend time limit till 2 A.M. in Gurugram.
Swiggy is among the best funded food delivery start-ups in India, having raised more than $75 million in equity funding from Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Harmony Partners, RB Investments, Norwest Venture Partners, SAIF Partners and Apoletto, and Yuri Milner. Apart from equity funding, the food delivery startup has also raised about $8 million in venture debt from InnoVen Capital.
The startup has said to undertake new initiatives to constantly evolve and address the growing needs of different consumer segments. It is currently operational in eight cities — Bangalore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, and Chennai — with some 5,000 restaurants on its platform. It claims to be presently delivering 20,000 orders, with an average delivery time of just 37 minutes.
Last week, Mukesh Bansal, who recently founded health and fitness startup CureFit, stepped down as the board member of Swiggy. The news came just six months after his appointment in the company’s board. The reason was said to be a “conflict of interest” as his new venture CureFit is also contemplating food delivery that overlaps with Swiggy’s core business.
Swiggy competes with the likes of Zomato, Foodpanda and Runnr — the entity created after the merger of food delivery start-up TinyOwl and hyperlocal delivery start-up Roadrunnr.
