The massive funding round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Prosus Ventures.

Indian food delivery startup Swiggy, announced the close of a $1.25 billion Series J funding that valued it at $5.5 billion post-money. Evidently encouraged by rival Zomato’s bumper IPO which closed earlier this week being subscribed over 40 times, SoftBank itself took up $450 million out of the “heavily oversubscribed” Swiggy round. The round includes $800 million disclosed by Swiggy in April that saw participation from new investors such as Qatar Investment Authority, Falcon Edge Capital, Amansa Capital, Goldman Sachs, besides Prosus and Accel. (The Economic Times)

Swiggy: Use of funds

Swiggy will use the funding, the biggest in its history, to expand its nascent online grocery business and for expansions to drive inorganic growth. The startup also intends to hire more tech talent across engineering, product, data science and analytics, and continue to boost its bread-and-butter food delivery business.

“The food delivery business has dramatically improved in unit economics profile, and, with clear paths to profitability, that’s one area where we’ll continue to invest and grow more awareness to build on what we have. A significant part of the investments will be made in our non-food bets like Instamart,” Swiggy’s cofounder and chief executive Sriharsha Majety said.

Apparently, Swiggy’s non-food ambitions have resulted in additional investor interest. The startup will also use the capital to build supply chains for these new bets.

Household brand

“SoftBank has successfully backed multiple food delivery platforms globally and seen the value of providing high quality convenience to consumers,” said Munish Varma, managing partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers. “Swiggy’s focus on evolving the consumer experience, and its emphasis on relationships with its delivery partners and restaurants, have made it a household brand in India.”

According to TechCrunch, which quoted research by Bernstein, the Indian food delivery market could be $12 billion in size by 2022.

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