Swiggy, the Indian food delivery giant, seeks $1.25 billion in IPO after receiving shareholder approval

Swiggy, an Indian food delivery and instant commerce startup, plans to raise $1.25 billion in an initial public offering and has secured approval from its shareholders, it disclosed in a filing to the local regulator.

The Bengaluru-headquartered startup plans to raise $450 million through the issuance of new shares and offer $800 million of shares from existing backers in the IPO, it wrote in a filing to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. It competes with publicly listed Zomato and Zepto, a StepStone Group-backed unicorn.

The Indian startup ecosystem has been eagerly anticipating Swiggy’s public debut, which is slated for later this year. Swiggy counts Prosus, Accel, SoftBank and Invesco among its backers. It was last valued at $10.7 billion in a funding round unveiled in early 2022. Some of its investors, including Invesco and Baron, have since publicly marked up the valuation of Swiggy to over $12 billion.

Swiggy had earlier intended to go public in 2023, TechCrunch previously reported, but deferred the plan due to not-so-favorable market conditions.

Swiggy commands about 45.8% of the Indian food delivery market and clocked a GMV of $2.57 billion in that business in 2023, Bernstein analysts wrote in a recent note. It serves between 16 million and 17 million monthly transacting users and works with a network of about 375,000 delivery personnel, the analysts said.

The startup’s food delivery business, which operates in 600 Indian cities, is profitable according to the company’s past statements.

Swiggy today faces fierce competition from Zomato, which also commands the market leading position in the instant commerce business. Zomato acquired Blinkit for $568 million in mid-2022 and since then, its quick commerce business has reached a size that is equivalent to half of its food delivery business. An indicator of its growth: Zomato, which went public in 2021, reached a record high of more than $20 billion in market cap earlier this month.

“Despite Zomato being a late entrant in the food delivery market, it has gone from a laggard in CY19 to gaining market share in the duopoly. Both players were similar size in CY20 at $ 1.2 Bn,” Bernstein analysts wrote.

Instamart, Swiggy’s quick commerce business, and Zomato’s Blinkit are also increasingly facing heightened competition from Zepto. The Mumbai-headquartered startup was recently on pace to achieve $1.2 billion in annual sales.

Zepto has outpaced Swiggy’s Instamart to become the No. 2 instant commerce startup in India, according to recent estimates by HSBC. Image Credits: Screenshot from HSBC report