Swiggy, an Indian food delivery service, has raised $1.25 billion in a funding round headed by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 and Netherlands-based technology investor Prosus.
The $800 million investment that the Bangalore-based startup had revealed earlier this year is included in the current funding round. SoftBank alone invested $450 million in the new round. Swiggy’s new round, which was “heavily oversubscribed,” gave the six-year-old food delivery startup a post-money valuation of $5.5 billion.
Swiggy claims that the latest fundraising round demonstrates the company’s comeback in the past few quarters. Swiggy, like many other startups, was severely impacted by the pandemic.
The startup’s recent bet on expanding into grocery delivery and pick-up and drop service, the Swiggy Genie, which competes with the Google-backed hyper-local courier startup Dunzo, has paid off, according to the company. The value of orders it is currently processing is 30 percent larger than it was before COVID-19.
Goldman Sachs and Qatar Investment Authority were also among the notable investors in the latest fundraise and other existing investors were Accel Partners and Wellington Management.
Last week, rival Zomato, backed by China’s Ant Group, received $46.3 billion in bids in a public offering that was more than 38 times oversubscribed. The new fundraise was heavily oversubscribed following strong interest from investors, and comes on the back of Swiggy’s rapid recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 and subsequent growth in 2020-21.
Last year, India’s home delivery companies were hit by the pandemic-related lockdown as the virus spread rapidly. However, when customers’ apprehension about ordering in faded and they avoided going out to eat, both Zomato and Swiggy reported an increase in delivery orders.
