Indian Unicorn Swiggy Raises a Staggering $1-billion

Swiggy has raised $1 billion as a part of our Series H Fundraise efforts led by Naspers.

New investors to join Swiggy's list of investors include Tencent and Hillhouse Capital (a $10-billion fund).

Swiggy said the funding also includes a 200 million secondary sale to some of its early investors and takes its capital reserves to close to $1 billion.

"This is a brilliant position of power for us to be in, and will ensure that we're able to continuously stay ahead by making investments into areas that create sustained differentiation in food over the next 2-3 years, while also seeding new growth centres in our endeavour to be the kings of convenience," Swiggy spokesperson said in a statement.

In its note, Swiggy sounded cautious of using the recent funds raised.

"Many large startups before us have had this large inflection point in their fundraising efforts, and it's important not to get carried away and be complacent. In the end, fundraising makes sure we don't lose but doesn't make sure we win," Swiggy's note said.

In its last round of funding, Swiggy had entered the Unicorn club when it raised its Series G investment. The funding round then had taken the Bangalore-based company to over $465 million raised from investors at roughly $1.3 billion, making it India's most-capitalized food delivery startup surpassing rival Zomato's $1.1 billion valuation.

The company was founded by Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy and Rahul Jaimini in 2014. Its previous investors include Yuri Milner's DST Global, Harmony Partners, Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Softbank's SAIF Partners.

Swiggy's arch rival, the Gurgaon-based online food ordering and restaurant reservation platform, Zomato raised fresh funding to the tune of $210 Mn from Alibaba's Ant Financials last month.

In neck-to-neck competition, Zomato and Swiggy have been competing for the top slot in the food-tech segment emerging as one of the hottest sectors for growth among Indian startups.

Currently, Swiggy is in 44 cities where it claims to have more than 40,000 restaurants on its platform.

The Indian unicorn charges between 15-40 percent in commission to restaurants and for smaller orders, customers pay an additional delivery charge between 20 and 50 rupees depending on their city.

In a recent report, Indian news daily Mint had said SoftBank had been evaluating Swiggy for nearly a year, but both parties had failed to reach an agreement during the start-up's last two funding rounds.

Story to be updated

(Reporting by Vanita Dsouza; Writing by Aashika Jain)