Indian food delivery giant Swiggy is eyeing an initial public offering (IPO) early next year and has begun preparations to raise at least $800 million as part of its public unveiling, according to a Nikkei Asia report Tuesday (Feb. 22) that cites three people familiar with the situation.
Swiggy’s efforts to expand their market share come as it battles Zomato for customers and is facing a challenge from Reliance Industries-backed Dunzo, Tata Group’s BigBasket, Zomato-backed Blinkit and Y Cominator-funded Zepto on its new quick commerce initiative.
Swiggy has raised about $3.3 billion in investment capital since its 2014 launch from SoftBank, Prosus Ventures, Invesco and Accel Partners, among others. It was valued at $10.7 billion earlier this year after raising $700 million, nearly double its $5.5 billion valuation from July, when it raised $1.25 billion.
“They (Swiggy) have started preparing for a public listing, beginning with adding independent directors to the board, which in itself will take a few months,” said one person aware of Swiggy's plans who did not want to be named. “They are likely to list early next year.”
Another person told Nikkei Asia that Swiggy will tout itself as a logistics company, rather than a food delivery firm.
“The integration of quick commerce under one roof will strengthen their value proposition to investors,” the person said. “That said, they will have to show a clear path to profitability to woo the public markets, as well as expand market share.”
Related: Indian Food Delivery Giant Swiggy Raises $700M at $10.7B Valuation
Zomato went public in a $1.3 billion IPO in January. Swiggy’s grocery delivery service Instamart is forecast to have an annualized gross merchandise value run rate of $1 billion across the upcoming three quarters.
Headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, Swiggy serves 18 cities. Instamart, a central feature on the main Swiggy app, enables users to have groceries delivered within 15 to 30 minutes. The company is striving to hit the 15-minute mark for deliveries as its standard.
