Napsers to lead Indian food delivery startup Swiggy
Swiggy enjoys a wide user base across the nation
Naspers has made some real progress on yet another sustenance conveyance startup leading to USD 80 million investment in the Indian online ordering and food delivery startup, Swiggy.
The global internet and entertainment conglomerate headquartered in South Africa has a history of investing in online food ordering and delivery companies across the globe, the likes of which include the Brazilian organisation iFood and the Mexican SinDelantal. Naspers’ recent acquisition is German food delivery business, Delivery Hero that cost them USD 425 million.
Impressed with @swiggy_in‘s exceptional execution in India & excited to lead this $80M investment! https://t.co/LxWfsSHDiG #foodTech pic.twitter.com/yjl2sxy5OH
— Naspers Ventures (@NaspersVentures) May 30, 2017
Swiggy faces tough competition from Zomato and Delivery Hero owned Food Panda alongside newer entrants UberEats and Google Areo. However Swiggy has managed to partner with 12,000 restaurants across eight major cities to emerge as one of the highest grossing digital food delivery ventures. Ashutosh Sharma, head of investments in India for Naspers, stated, “Swiggy has shown impressive growth in a highly competitive market. Naspers was attracted to the company’s exceptional execution in disrupting online food ordering and delivery in India while many players are struggling. Their ability to create a sustainable business, earning consumer trust through a reliable first-party delivery technology, positions them well for success.” He will by default join the Swiggy board of directors.
India has always been a booming choice for venture capital investors despite the tough economy and market conditions. According to sources, the early half of 2016 witnessed 400 food delivery startups backed by venture investors. It accounted for nearly USD 120 million in funding by the wealthy patrons.
Sriharsha Majety, CEO of Swiggy commented, “We have a fully scaled technology platform but will look at growing our data science and machine learning capabilities. Our current team size in data sciences is in single digits but we plan to grow that. We will also double our engineering team by 2018 to 200 people and will be hiring for middle and senior leadership teams. There are ongoing partnerships with our restaurant partners under the hood and we will take a call on which experiments to scale. We have seen 35 pc reductions in delivery costs and recorded six times growth in revenues last year. We will look at a strong growth year ahead.”
