BENGALURU, Jan 24 – SoftBank-backed (9984.T) Indian food delivery firm Swiggy said on Monday it raised $700 million in a funding round led by U.S. investment firm Invesco (IVZ.N), as competition intensifies for quick delivery of food and grocery in Asia’s third-largest economy.
Baron Capital Group, Sumeru Venture, IIFL and Kotak were among the new investors who participated in the latest funding round. Swiggy’s existing investors who took part in the round included Alpha Wave Global and Qatar Investment Authority.
“While the food delivery business has nearly doubled in gross order value (GOV) in the last year. This fundraise will enable Swiggy to further accelerate growth on the core platform. And make meaningful investments to grow Instamart,” Swiggy said in a statement.
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, Grofers, Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Fresh and Reliance Industries’ (RELI.NS) JioMart. In Grofers, Swiggy’s larger rival Zomato Ltd (ZOMT.NS) holds a stake.
Earlier this month, Reliance Industries’ retail arm invested $200 million for a 25.8% stake in online delivery platform Dunzo. The company’s existing investors Alpha Wave Global (formerly Falcon Edge Capital), Qatar Investment Authority, and ARK Impact, and Prosus. Also participated in the round, Swiggy said in a press note.
“The GMV [gross merchandise value] our food delivery business achieved in 40 months, took Instamart just 17 months, demonstrating the platform benefits of Swiggy. We will double down on this to build more categories in line with our mission of offering unparalleled convenience to Indian consumers,” said Swiggy’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sriharsha Majety in statement.
Instamart is Swiggy’s quick commerce arm, which delivers groceries within 15-30 minutes. In July last year, Swiggy had raised $1.25 billion led by SoftBank.