New Delhi (Reuters) – SoftBank-backed (9984.T) 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 had raised $700 million in the fundraise that was led by U.S. investment firm Invesco (IVZ.N) and 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 was 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 and in which Swiggy’s rival Zomato Ltd (ZOMT.NS) holds a stake. Rivals also include Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Fresh and Reliance Industries-owned (RELI.NS) JioMart.
Earlier this month, Reliance’s retail arm invested $200 million for a 25.8% stake in online delivery platform Dunzo.
