E-commerce and media group Naspers invested $660m in India-based online food delivery platform Swiggy today to lead its $1bn series H round.
Local services platform Meituan Dianping and internet group Tencent also took part in the round, along with DST Global, Coatue Management, Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management.
The round valued Swiggy at $3.3bn, sources familiar with the development told the Economic Times, though the company has not confirmed earlier reports suggesting that some $300m of the cash would consist of secondary share purchases.
Swiggy runs an app-based service enabling users to order food from local restaurants to be delivered to their homes. It is present in 58 Indian cities, having entered 42 of those in the past six months.
The series H funds will support the expansion of Swiggy’s machine learning and engineering teams as it looks to beef up its technology capabilities. It will also grow the number of delivery-only kitchens it oversees through its Access initiative.
The capital boosted Swiggy’s overall funding to almost $1.47bn and comes in the wake of a $210m round in June this year that was co-led by Naspers and DST Global, and backed by Meituan Dianping and Coatue Management, at a $1.3bn valuation.
Swiggy had secured $100m in a series F round led by Naspers and backed by Meituan Dianping four months earlier, valuing it at $700m post-money according to ET.
Naspers first invested in Swiggy when it led the company’s $80m series E round, which was disclosed in May 2017. Its earlier investors include DST, Norwest Venture Partners, Accel, Harmony Partners, RB Investments and SAIF Partners.
Larry Illg, CEO of food and ventures for Naspers, said: “Swiggy has 10 times the number of orders per month since our first investment, has expanded throughout India to tier 1, 2 and 3 cities, and most importantly, is the most loved food delivery brand in India, providing the best service to consumers nationwide.
“Our latest round of capital will help to accelerate Swiggy’s journey towards its vision of providing unmatched convenience in food ordering and delivery for Indian consumers.”
Naspers had led a $540m primary and secondary round on Monday for another India-based tech company, learning app developer Byju’s, at a reported valuation of between $3.6bn and $3.7bn.
