Bessemer leads $15m round for India's Swiggy
Bessemer Venture Partners has led a $15 million Series D round for Indian online food delivery start-up Swiggy.
Existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, SAIF Partners and Accel Partners also invested in the round; all three participated in the company's $35 million Series C round in January. Swiggy will use the new capital to improve its customer relationship experience and delivery efficiency through technology upgrades and expanding its leadership team.
Currently Swiggy operates in eight cities, with 5,000 restaurants on its platform and 3,000 delivery drivers. The company is aiming to consolidate its market position in its existing territories and partner with more restaurants, rather than expand into new regions; it also aims to upgrade its newly launched Swiggy Express platform by offering customers more cuisine choices and shortening delivery time to 20 minutes.
Since its founding in 2014 Swiggy has raised more than $75 million, including the most recent round. SAIF and Accel have contributed to all of its funding rounds, committing $2 million in Series A funding in January 2015 and participating in the $16.5 million Series B round led by Norwest the following June.
Swiggy's competitors include Zomato, which AVCJ Research shows has received nearly $200 million since 2013. Following a $60 million investment from Temasek Holdings and Vy Capital last September, Zomato announced 300 layoffs. Another competitor, Sequoia Capital-backed TinyOwl, reportedly shut down its service in all cities except Mumbai earlier this year.
New York-based Bessemer provides growth capital investments to technology-oriented start-ups in India, Brazil, Europe, Israel, Russia and the US. Its recent activity in India includes leading a INR1 billion ($14.9 million) round for online home design portal LivSpace in August and leading a $25 million round for local services marketplace UrbanClap last November. It is also a backer of leading online grocer BigBasket.
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