Prosus Ventures, a subsidiary of internet group Naspers’ consumer internet vehicle Prosus, led a $113m series I round for India-based food delivery service Swiggy yesterday.
Local services portal Meituan Dianping also participated in the round, as did investment management firm Wellington Management Company. Prosus supplied $100m according to the Economic Times, and the round valued Swiggy at approximately $3.6bn.
Sources told ET the transaction formed part of a round expected to close at $150m, significantly below the $1bn target Swiggy set in June 2019. It reduced the target to $500m in July before increasing it to $750m in August at which time Naspers had reportedly been considering an investment of up to $350m.
Founded in 2014, Swiggy operates an on-demand delivery platform that covers more than 520 cities across India. Its core business is food and it has partnerships in place with more than 160,000 restaurants to date, but has also added the delivery of other consumer goods to its services.
The series I capital will go towards the development of new lines of business with clear gaps in the market, though the company did not specify which areas it plans to target.
The funding will also support the growth of Swiggy Stores, which allows users to order items from any local shop, as well as parcel pick-up and drop-off service Swiggy Go and subscription-based milk and grocery delivery service SuprDaily.
Swiggy has received approximately $1.58bn in funding to date. Naspers led a $1bn series H round in December 2018 that included Meituan Dianping, internet group Tencent, DST Global, Coatue Management, Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management.
Naspers and DST Global co-led a $210m series G round for the company in June 2018, investing together with Meituan Dianping and Coatue Management. Naspers had also led its $100m series F round four months earlier with participation from Meituan Dianping.
Swiggy first attracted Naspers as an investor when the corporate led its $80m series E round in 2017. The company’s early backers include DST, Accel, Harmony Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, RB Investments and SAIF Partners.
