Naspers, Meituan-Dianping invest in India's Swiggy

Swiggy will use the new capital to expand its reach in India and improve customer experience by investing in technology, adding new service offerings and expanding its logistics and restaurant services.

Swiggy was founded in 2014 and has more than 25,000 restaurants on its platform across 11 cities in India, claiming an average delivery time of under 35 minutes. In recent months it has added new business lines to its initial food delivery focus – its “cloud kitchen” initiative Swiggy Access, launched in November, provides kitchen space to restaurants looking to open delivery-only branches in new cities.

“Swiggy has continued strong growth through 2017 and now has a clear lead in the market,” said Larry Illg, CEO of Naspers Ventures, in a statement. “The company’s performance is all the more impressive given the intense competition we see in the food ordering and delivery business in India. Swiggy has shown it has the ability to rise above the competition and create long-term relationships with its users.”

Naspers led an $80 million funding round for Swiggy last year, with participation by existing investors Accel Partners, SAIF Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners, which had taken part in a $15 million Bessemer-led Series D round the previous September.

Meituan-Dianping was created in October 2015 after rival platforms Meituan and Dianping agreed to merge. In addition to its online-to-offline (O2O) services platform, the company has backed a number of Chinese technology start-ups, including healthcare services platform Shuidi and hotel property management system BeyondHost.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• South Asia
• Technology
• Consumer
• Expansion
• India
• TMT
• Growth capital