With the latest investments, Swiggy’s valuation stands at US$3.6 billion while Zomato is now valued at US$3.2 billion
Food delivery app Swiggy has raised an additional US$43 million in its ongoing Series I funding round led by China-based Tencent, according to a company statement on April 6, 2020. Ark Impact, Korea Investment Partners and Mirae Asset Capital Markets also participated in this round.
With the latest investments, Swiggy’s total funding from this round reaches $156 million. The Bengaluru, India-based unicorn’s valuation now stands at over $3.6 billion.
Swiggy had raised $113 million in its first tranche of Series A funding in February led by technlogy investor Naspers-owned Prosus Ventures, which invested $100 million.
“Swiggy has built a sustainable food delivery business over the years while solving various customer pain points. As we continue to strengthen and expand our services that offer unparalleled convenience to our consumers, we are humbled by the faith shown by our investors year-on-year and welcome the new investors on board,” said Swiggy Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Rahul Bothra, in a statement.
“Our focus remains to execute on our vision while building a sustainable path to profitability,” he added.
Swiggy has broadened its scope of services and entered into delivery of groceries through Swiggy Stores, pickup-and-drop service Swiggy Go, and acquired Supr Daily in 2019 to venture into delivery of milk and other consumables. The latest funding will be used to continue exploring new lines of business.
Swiggy reported a loss of over $307 million with revenue of approximately $147 million for FY2019.
Rival foodtech startup Zomato has also raised funding of $5 million from British investor Baillie Gifford controlled Pacific Horizon Investment Fund. Baillie Gifford declined to comment on the latest funding.
With the additional investment, Zomato’s total funding till date has reached approximately $914.6 million, according to Crunchbase data. The startup is now valued at $3.2 billion.
The Ant Financial-backed unicorn claims to have more than 1.5 million restaurants on its platform and is present in 24 countries, according to its website.
For FY2019, Zomato reported losses of $294 million and a revenue of $206 million.
Both Swiggy and Zomato are operating with minimal delivery partners and limited restaurant partners amid the coronavirus lockdown in India. According to the National Restaurant Association of India, more than 95% of Indian restaurants have gone offline due to shortage of manpower and fresh supplies.
Both platforms are also facing a drop in demand by at least 60% across cities amid the COVID-19 lockdown in the country, according to The Economic Times.
A third competitor in the market, online food and groceries delivery service BigBasket, has reportedly raised US$50-60 million in a bridge round of funding financed by Alibaba and other existing investors. Experiencing a similar upswing in demand due to a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, BigBasket customers were experiencing wait times of 5-10 days.
BigBasket’s valuation has remained the same after this fresh funding infusion. It reached unicorn status after raising $150 million Series F round led by Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth fund in May 2019, and also subsequently raised Rs. 1 billion (around US$13 million) in debt funding from Trifecta Capital Advisors in July.
Header image by Patrick Connor Klopf on Unsplash.
