Naspers leads $1b Series H for India's Swiggy
Naspers has re-upped in Indian online food ordering and delivering platform Swiggy, leading a $1 billion Series H round of funding for the company.
The South African internet conglomerate invested $660 million on its own, with additional contributions from other existing backers such as DST Global, Coatue Management, and Chinese online-to-offline (O2O) services platform Meituan-Dianping. Meanwhile, Tencent Holdings, Hillhouse Capital, and Wellington Management came in as new investors.
The valuation is reportedly in the region of $3.3 billion, up from $1.2 billion in Swiggy’s $210 million Series G round in June, which was co-led by Naspers and DST.
Since the previous funding, Swiggy has entered 42 new cities, expanding its footprint to more than 50,000 restaurants across 50 cities. Deliveries are made by a fleet of nearly 120,000 drivers. The company has also improved its market share and repeat customer rates – helped by quick delivery times, no minimum order value, live order tracking, and round-the-clock customer support – according to a Naspers statement. Gross merchandise value has doubled in the last six months.
The new capital will go towards the Swiggy Access initiative, where kitchen space is provided to restaurants looking to open delivery-only branches in new cities. It will also support a recruitment drive – with the company keen to strengthen its machine learning and engineering talent at mid and senior levels – and ongoing technology platform improvements.
“We first partnered with Swiggy in April 2017 because we recognized the Swiggy team had built a sustainable, long-term business, that stood out amongst others in India. Now, nearly two years later, we have even more confidence Swiggy has the winning formula and will continue to build a leading business in the country,” said Larry Illg, CEO for food and ventures at Naspers. He added that the number of orders per month has increased tenfold since its first investment.
Naspers has now led Swiggy’s three most recent funding rounds. The group’s latest investment comes a matter of days after it led a $400 million round for Byju’s, an Indian online education start-up.
Other backers of Swiggy include Accel Partners, SAIF Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners. The rising Chinese representation on the company’s investor roster is arguably the most strategically significant development. Meituan-Dianping took part in the $100 million Series F round and the company has now been joined by Tencent – a significant investor in Meituan-Dianping and a co-investor with it elsewhere – in the Series H.
Swiggy’s biggest competitor is Zomato, which raised $210 million in October from Alibaba Group-controlled Ant Financial at a valuation of approximately $2 billion. The investor is now said to hold about 28% of the company, having reportedly committed $200 million in February.
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