SAIF, Norwest, Accel in $35m round for India's Swiggy

Along with the existing investors, Singapore-based RB Investments and US-based Harmony Partners also participated. Swiggy will use the capital to grow the management team, upgrade its technology and improve customer experience, according to YourStory.

While the company has so far focused on expanding into new territories, one of its goals with the new funding is to improve its services in the areas it currently serves. Swiggy is present in eight cities in India, processing about a million orders per month and delivering from 5,000 restaurants. It wants to lower its delivery times, which currently average around 36 minutes.

Swiggy's business model is similar to that of other food delivery services - customers' orders are prepared by participating restaurants and delivered by couriers on motorcycles who work as subcontractors. It raised a $16.5 million Series B round in June led by Norwest; Accel and SAIF also took part in that round.

After a series of investments last year, India's food delivery start-ups have hit a rough patch. Several players have scaled back operations.

For example, Zomato, which raised a $60 million round from Temasek Holdings and Vy Capital in September, announced 300 layoffs in October. In addition, TinyOwl let go nearly 100 employees in August and subsequently received $7.6 million from Sequoia Capital and Matrix, on the condition that the company come up with a sustainable business model within 12 months.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Expansion
• Venture
• India
• Norwest Venture Partners
• SAIF Partners
• Accel Partners
• Consumer
• Technology
• Growth capital
• Venture