Swiggy in talks to raise $500mn from Korean investors, Naspers: Report

As competition in India’s food-tech sector intensifies, Swiggy, the food delivery platform owned by Bengaluru-based Bundl Technologies Private Limited, has reportedly hit the market for a fresh round of capital just a little over seven months after it raised $1 billion (around Rs 7,000 crore then) from an investor consortium led by South African internet and media conglomerate Naspers. 

Swiggy, said a report in the Economic Times, is in talks to raise another $500 million (Rs 3,428 crore at current exchange rates) from multiple investors including existing backer Naspers.

Besides Naspers, the company is said to be in talks with multiple South Korean investors including Korea Investment Partners, Mirae Asset Management, STIC Investments and Neoplux, the report said, citing two sources directly aware of the matter.

The deal, which is also expected to have a secondary transaction component, is expected to value the company at around $4 billion (Rs 27,400 crore at current exchange rate). It was last estimated to be valued at $3.3 billion when it closed the $1 billion round in December last year.

Email queries sent to Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and CEO of the company, seeking more information in this regard did not elicit a response at the time of filing this report.

The funding round in December had also received contributions from new investors including Chinese conglomerate Tencent Holdings, Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management Company. Apart from Naspers, existing investors who participated in that round included DST Global, Meituan Dianping  and Coatue Management.

Recent product launches

Swiggy, which competes in the food delivery space with Zomato, has been kickstarting new initiatives and making investments into its business verticals as part of its efforts to diversify its consumer product offerings.

Earlier this month, a Times of India report , citing unnamed sources, stated that Swiggy has committed to invest $100 million (Rs 686 crore then) in its subscription-based delivery product Supr for delivering milk and other essentials.

Last month, it launched Swiggy Daily, a separate app that allows consumers the option of ordering home-cooked meals.

In March 2019, TechCircle reported that Swiggy was testing bulk-order services through a pilot christened Swiggy XL in select localities of Bengaluru.

In February, it launched Swiggy Stores, a hyperlocal service that will offer home delivery of groceries and other daily essentials such as meat, pet supplies, flowers, health supplements from brick-and-mortar stores.

Swiggy was founded in August 2014 by Majety, Nandan Reddy and Rahul Jaimini. While Majety and Reddy are engineers from BITS-Pilani, Jaimini is a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.