Swiggy raises $800 mn in new round at near $5 bn valuation

Food delivery platform Swiggy has raised around $800 million (about Rs 5,863 crore) in a new funding round. 

Falcon Edge Capital, Goldman Sachs, Think Capital, Amansa Capital and Carmignac have joined as new investors, media reports said citing an email to employees by Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and chief executive of Swiggy.  

Existing investors Prosus Ventures and Accel also participated in this round.  

The latest fundraise was done at a valuation of close to $5 billion.  

Majety said in the email that the fundraise gives the startup a lot more firepower than the planned investments for its 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," he added.  

In February last year, Swiggy raised Rs 805 crore (about $112.6 million) in a round of funding led by South African technology conglomerate Naspers.

Swiggy previously raised $1 billion at a valuation of $3.3 billion in December 2018.  

It competes with Zomato, which pocketed 100 million (Rs 760 crore) from US-based investment firm Tiger Global Management LLC in September last year. 

In 2020, Zomato agreed to acquire ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc.'s food delivery business in India -- Uber Eats -- in an all-stock transaction.

The deal gave Uber a 9.99% stake in Zomato.  

This acquisition of Uber Eats marked a big consolidation in the highly competitive and heavily funded food delivery market in India, heralding a two-way race between Zomato and Swiggy.