Swiggy is an Indian

online food ordering Online food ordering is the process of ordering food, for Food delivery, delivery or pickup, from a website or other application. The product can be either ready-to-eat food (e.g., direct from a home-kitchen, restaurant, or a virtual restaurant) o ...

and delivery

platform Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...

. Founded in July 2014, Swiggy is based in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

and operates in 500 Indian cities as of September 2021. Besides food delivery, Swiggy also provides on-demand grocery deliveries under the name Instamart, and a same-day package delivery service called Swiggy Genie.

History

In July 2014, the two founders, Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy, designed an

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

website called Bundl to facilitate courier service and shipping within India. Bundl was halted and rebranded to enter the food delivery market. At the time, the food delivery sector was in turmoil as several notable startups, such as

Foodpanda Foodpanda (stylized as foodpanda) is an online food and grocery delivery platform owned by Berlin-based Delivery Hero. Foodpanda operates as the lead brand for Delivery Hero in Asia, with its headquarters in Singapore. It is currently the largest ...

(later acquired by

Ola Cabs Ola Cabs (stylized as OLΛ) is an Indian multinational ridesharing company, headquartered in Bangalore. It also operates in other business verticals including financial services and cloud kitchens. A variety of venture capitalists including S ...

), TinyOwl (later acquired by

Zomato Zomato () is an Indian multinational restaurant aggregator and food delivery company founded by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in 2008. Zomato provides information, menus and user-reviews of restaurants as well as food delivery options fro ...

) and Ola Cafe (later closed) were struggling. Majety and Reddy approached Rahul Jaimini, formerly with

Myntra Myntra is a major Indian fashion e-commerce company headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. The company was founded in 2007-2008 to sell personalized gift items. In May 2014, Myntra.com was acquired by Flipkart. In May 2022, Myntra launch ...

, and founded Swiggy and parent holding company Bundl Technologies in 2013. In early 2019, Swiggy expanded into general

product Product may refer to: Business * Product (business), an item that serves as a solution to a specific consumer problem. * Product (project management), a deliverable or set of deliverables that contribute to a business solution Mathematics * Produ ...

deliveries under the name Swiggy Stores, sourcing items from local stores. In August 2020, the company launched its instant grocery delivery service called Instamart using a network of

dark store The term dark store, dark shop, dark supermarket or dotcom centre refers to a retail outlet or distribution centre that exists exclusively for online shopping. A dark store is generally a large warehouse that can either be used to facilitate a "c ...

s. In early 2021, Swiggy closed Swiggy Stores and expanded its operations under Instamart. In September 2019, Swiggy launched instant pickup/dropoff service Swiggy Go. The service is used for a diverse array of items, including laundry and

document A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', which denotes a "teaching" or ...

or parcel deliveries to business clients and retail customers. In April 2020, it rebranded Swiggy Go as Swiggy Genie. In May 2020, Swiggy laid off 1100 employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the company announced that it would cover the vaccination cost for its delivery partners.

Funding

In 2015, Swiggy received a $2 million investment from Accel and SAIF Partners, along with additional investment from

Norwest Venture Partners Norwest Venture Partners (Norwest) is an American venture and growth equity investment firm. The firm targets early to late-stage venture and growth equity investments across several sectors, including cloud computing and information technology, ...

. The following year, it raised $15 million from both previous and new investors, including

Bessemer Venture Partners Bessemer Venture Partners (Bessemer) is an American venture capital firm. The firm has over $19 billion under management and invests globally, with offices in San Francisco, Redwood City, New York City, Boston, Israel, India, and London. Bessemer ...

and Harmony Partners. In 2017,

Naspers Naspers Limited is a South African multinational internet, technology and multimedia holding company headquartered in Cape Town, with interests in online retail, publishing and venture capital investment. Naspers' principal shareholder is its ...

led an $80 million funding round into Swiggy. By September 2018, Swiggy was valued around $3.3 billion, and in April 2020, Swiggy was valued around $3.6 billion. In July 2021, Swiggy raised $1.25 billion from

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...

Prosus Prosus N.V., or Prosus, is a global investment group that is investing and operating across sectors and markets with long-term growth potential. It is among the largest technology investors in the world. Prosus has invested across multiple verti ...

and other investors, at a valuation of $5.5 billion. In January 2022, Swiggy's valuation rose to $10.7 billion after a $700-million fundraise led by US asset manager

Invesco Invesco Ltd. is an American independent investment management company that is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with additional branch offices in 20 countries. Its common stock is a constituent of the S&P 500 and trades on the New York stock exc ...

Acquisitions

*In 2018, Swiggy acquired Mumbai-based Scootsy Logistics, a food and fashion delivery service, and ultimately shut it down in 2020. *In September 2018, it acquired Mumbai-based milk delivery startup SuprDaily. *In 2022, Swiggy acquired the dining and table reservation platform Dineout from

Times Internet Times Internet is an Indian internet technology company, based in Gurgaon, which owns, operates and invests in various internet-led products, services and technology. It is the digital arm of the Times Group, the largest media conglomerate in I ...

in an all-stock deal valued at $120 million.

Acqui-hires

*In 2017, Swiggy acqui-hired Bangalore-based Asian food start-up 48East. *In 2019, the company acqui-hired the

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

startup Kint.io.

Other investments

*In 2019, Swiggy, invested 31 crore in Mumbai-based ready-to-eat food brand Fingerlix. * In 2022, Swiggy led a $180 million Series D investment round in bike taxi company Rapido.

Partnerships

Swiggy has partnered with

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based res ...

to provide delivery services. It has also partnered with Google Local Guide to facilitate customer reviews, and with

Sodexo Sodexo (formerly Sodexho Alliance) is a French food services and facilities management company headquartered in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux. It has 412,088 employees as of 2021, operates in 55 countries and serves 100 million custome ...

to let customers pay through meal cards. Swiggy launched a digital wallet, Swiggy Money, in partnership with

ICICI Bank ICICI Bank Limited is an Indian Private bank. It is headquartered at Mumbai. It offers a wide range of banking products and financial services for corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and specialized subsidiari ...

, an Indian private sector bank. In January 2022, Swiggy and drone company ANRA Technologies began trialing drone deliveries.

References

External links

* {{Online food ordering Online marketplaces of India Indian companies established in 2014 Retail companies established in 2014 Transport companies established in 2014 Internet properties established in 2014 Online food ordering Companies based in Bangalore 2014 establishments in Karnataka Privately held companies of India