Naspers Gives Swiggy A Boost To Reach Valuation Of $400 Million!

Ladies and gentlemen rejoice! Your favorite food delivery startup, Swiggy, is reportedly in ‘advanced’ talks with South African Internet and media conglomerate, Naspers in a deal which would give the food startup a valuation of close to $400 million! Well, it’s not all Naspers, an ET report says that Naspers is expected to invest $50 – $60 million, as a part of the funding round. However, sources say that Swiggy has already got a pre-money valuation of about $320 million. Nice work!

Naspers isn’t new to the Indian startup market, they’ve already invested in companies like OLX, ibibo, and PayU. They also hold a 15% stake in online retailer Flipkart. In November 2016, Naspers set up a venture capital arm in India to accelerate its investments in the country. Ashutosh Sharma, formerly a part of Norwest Venture Partners, is leading investments and mergers and acquisitions in the firm.

Swiggy was valued close to $200 million when it raised $15 million from Bessemer Venture Partners in September 2016. This funding will help them take on rivals like restaurant search and delivery player Zomato, besides potential competition from players like search engine giant Google, which recently launched Areo. Even as it nears a funding round from Naspers, Swiggy continues to attract interest from strategic players. ET had reported last year that Swiggy has held discussions with US online.

Sources say that some Chinese participants had also been expected for this funding round. These will mostly be strategic investors such as the online-to-offline business Meituan. However, these talks haven’t moved as swiftly so they may be involved in the next round of investment.

Swiggy was founded in 2015 by Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy, and Rahul Jaimini. It is currently functional in eight cities and partnered with 12,000 restaurants. They clock in around 90,000 orders per day which come to a massive 2.7 million orders a month! Even in the face of immense competition, it looks as if Swiggy is not dying down.