SoftBank-backed Swiggy doubled its valuation to $10.7 billion in its latest funding round, two people familiar with the matter said, as booming demand for quick delivery of food and grocery in India drives up investments in the sector.
The food-delivery firm said on Monday it raised $700 million in a funding round led by US investment firm Invesco, which also included Baron Capital Group, Sumeru Venture, IIFL and Kotak. Existing investors Alpha Wave Global and Qatar Investment Authority also took part in the round.
Demand for delivery of food and groceries has accelerated in Asia’s third-largest economy since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, prompting companies to expand their operations in the race to dominate the sector.
Swiggy had raised $1.25 billion in a SoftBank-led fundraising in July, which valued it at $5.5 billion.
“While the food delivery business has nearly doubled in gross order value in the last year, this fundraise will enable Swiggy to further accelerate growth on the core platform and make meaningful investments to grow Instamart,” it said on Monday.
Swiggy said its grocery delivery service Instamart is on track to reach an annualised gross merchandise value run rate of $1 billion in the next three quarters.
Instamart competes with Tata-owned BigBasket and Blinkit, formerly known as Grofers, which Swiggy’s rival Zomato holds a stake in, as well as Amazon.com’s Amazon Fresh and Reliance Industries’ JioMart.
Earlier this month, Reliance Industries’ retail arm invested $200 million for a 25.8% stake in online delivery platform Dunzo.
• Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard
This report was updated on January 24, 2022 with new information.
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