Indian food delivery giant Swiggy eyes $1 billion IPO – TechCrunch

Indian food delivery giant Swiggy has hired bankers as it gears up for an initial public offering next year, a source familiar with the matter said.

The startup, which was valued at $10.7 billion in its Series K financing in January this year, is looking to raise as much as $1 billion in the IPO, which it plans to file as early as first half of next year, the source said, requesting anonymity as the deliberations are ongoing and details are private.

Swiggy IPO’s timing and just how much money it wishes to raise from the public market are likely to change depending on the market conditions and other factors, the source cautioned, adding that the startup will be raising at least one more large financing round before the IPO.

The startup — which counts Prosus Ventures, Accel and SoftBank among its backers — has hired JP Morgan and ICICI Securities in recent weeks to run its books for the IPO, the source said. The startup is likely to add a couple of more investment banks in the coming months.

The fact that Swiggy — whose chief rival, Zomato, went public last year — has been eyeing for an IPO has been apparent for some time. It has told several investors in recent quarters that it is gearing up for an IPO. Several late-stage and pre-IPO investors such as Invesco, IIFL AMC Late Stage Fund and Axis Growth invested in the startup’s most recent financing round.

Swiggy has also been working to improve its finances and by the quarter that ended in September last year, it had fully recovered from the pandemic’s losses. It’s also gearing up to make some acquisitions and large investments. The startup is in talks to acquire restaurant reservation app Dineout, according to one person familiar with the matter. (Indian news outlet Inc42 first reported about the talks.)

“Since the start of the financial year, Swiggy has focused on recovery by reactivating users, increasing monthly frequency, and returning user conversion to pre-Covid-19 levels. This strategy paid off as Swiggy reactivated 128,000 restaurants on the platform (100% of pre-Covid-19 level), achieved 1.59 million orders per day, and GMV of $984m, up 69% on the comparable period,” Prosus Ventures shared in its financial report in November.

“This growth reflects higher average order values compared to pre-pandemic periods and higher revenues from delivery fees and advertising sales.”

Swiggy said in January that it had nearly doubled its food delivery business’ gross order value, and Instamart, its instant delivery service, was on track to reach an annual GMV run rate of $1 billion in the next three quarters.

“Our goal is to make Swiggy the platform that 100 million consumers can use 15 times a month. We will continue to invest in our people, products, and partners to create a positive impact on the ecosystem and accelerate the digital transformation in food and grocery delivery and other on-demand services,” Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and chief executive of Swiggy said in January.

At stake is India’s food services market, which is expected to reach $97 billion by March of 2026, analysts at Bernstein wrote in a report to clients last year.