E-commerce and media group Naspers has led a $100m funding round for India-based food delivery platform Swiggy that included local services platform Meituan-Dianping, the Economic Times reported today.
The round would have likely valued Swiggy at $600m to $650m pre-money, people aware of the deal details told ET.
Swiggy runs an online and mobile platform where users can order food from local restaurants to be delivered to their door by the company’s fleet. It launched a venture called Swiggy Access in November 2017 that operates as a small base of delivery-only kitchens in the city of Bengaluru.
Sriharsha Majety, Swiggy’s CEO, said: “With this funding, we will further invest in building differentiated offerings, plugging the white spaces in the ecosystem and developing our technology while keeping superlative customer experience at the core.”
Neither e-commerce company Flipkart, which reports in November 2017 suggested could invest $50m in Swiggy, nor telecommunications and internet group SoftBank, rumoured to be considering an investment of up to $250m, were named as participants in the round.
Naspers led Swiggy’s last round, an $80m series E in May 2017 that valued it at $400m. The corporate also owns 33% of Tencent, the China-headquartered internet group that is the largest investor in Meituan-Dianping.
Swiggy has now raised approximately $255m altogether. Its earlier investors include Norwest Venture Partners, DST Global, Accel, Harmony Partners, RB Investments and SAIF Partners.
Larry Illg, chief executive of Naspers Ventures, said: “Swiggy has continued strong growth through 2017 and now has a clear lead in the market.
“The company’s performance is all the more impressive given the intense competition we see in the food ordering and delivery business in India. Swiggy has shown it has the ability to rise above the competition and create long-term relationships with its users.”