India-based online food ordering service Swiggy is discussing an investment of $200m to $250m with telecoms group SoftBank, the Economic Times reported today citing three people with knowledge of the deal.
Internet company Tencent is said to provide another $50m if the SoftBank investment goes ahead, adding to e-commerce firm Flipkart’s initial $50m commitment earlier this month. The deal would value Swiggy at $600m to $650m pre-money.
E-commerce group Alibaba and its payments processing affiliate Ant Financial are also discussing an investment. The decision follows a dropped merger between Swiggy and restaurant review platform Zomato, backed by e-commerce firm Info Edge, earlier this month.
Swiggy operates a food delivery service that uses its own fleet of drivers to collect food from partner restaurants and deliver them to customers in the Indian cities of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.
The company has secured approximately $155m to date, most recently collecting $80m in a series E round in May 2017 led by media and e-commerce firm Naspers.
Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), Accel, SAIF Partners, Harmony Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners also contributed to the series E round, after NVP, Accel, SAIF and Harmony had already supplied $7m in series D capital in May 2016 alongside DST Global.
In January 2016, Swiggy closed a $35m series C round backed by Harmony, SAIF and RB Investments, after obtaining $16.5m in a series B round featuring SAIF, Accel, NVP and one undisclosed backer in 2015.