Invesco leads $700m round for India’s Swiggy
Invesco has led a USD 700m round for India-based on-demand delivery platform Swiggy at a reported valuation of USD 10.5bn.
It comes less than a year after SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Prosus Ventures led a USD 1.25bn investment with support from Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Falcon Edge Capital.
Prosus, QIA, and Falcon Edge - now known as Alpha Wave Global - returned for the latest round. They were joined by Baron Capital Group, Sumeru Venture, Sixteenth Street Capital, Ghisallo Capital Management, Smile Group, Segantii Capital, Ark Impact, and funds operated by asset managers IIFL, Axis Asset Management, and Kotak Investment Advisors.
Zomato, Swiggy's direct competitor, raised INR 93.7bn (USD 1.25bn) through an IPO last year, part of a wave of pre-profit technology start-ups that debuted on the domestic bourse. The company now has a market capitalisation of around INR 700bn, more than twice the valuation of its last private round.
Founded in 2014, Swiggy connects consumers to more than 185,000 restaurant partners and stores in over 500 cities. Orders are fulfilled by a dedicated fleet of delivery drivers engaged on a one-to-one basis. The company – which receives commissions on transactions – sets no minimum order value and offers live order tracking and round-the-clock customer support.
In the past few months, Swiggy has expanded Instamart, its grocery service, to 19 cities. Swiggy Genie, a pick-up and drop service, is currently in 68 cities, while the meat and daily grocery service, Supr Daily, is present across all major Indian cities. Recent product launches include Swiggy One, a membership program with benefits across food, groceries, and on-demand services by Swiggy.
“The GMV [gross merchandise value] our food delivery business achieved in 40 months, took Instamart just 17 months, demonstrating the platform benefits of Swiggy. We will double down on this to build more categories in line with our mission of offering unparalleled convenience to Indian consumers,” CEO Sriharsha Majety, said in a statement.
“Our goal is to make Swiggy the platform that 100 million consumers can use 15 times a month. We will continue to invest in our people, products, and partners to create a positive impact on the ecosystem and accelerate the digital transformation in food and grocery delivery and other on-demand services.”
Swiggy has now raised about USD 3.7bn since inception. Other backers include Goldman Sachs, Coatue Management, DST Global, Hillhouse Capital, Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Harmony Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, SAIF Partners, Korea Investment Partners, Samsung Ventures, and Mirae Asset Capital Markets.
Invesco is investing via its NASDAQ-listed Developing Markets Fund, which is headed by Justin Leverenz, formerly director of pan-Asian technology research for Goldman Sachs. As of end-2021, the fund had USD8.8m of investments in India, representing 17.4% of its global assets under management, a significant overweighting.
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