Two Bengaluru-based companies on Monday announced raising nearly $1 billion in new funds – with ride-hailing firm Ola’s electric scooter spinoff, Ola Electric, raising $200 million and food-tech platform Swiggy raising $700 million from marquee investors. Dollar investment announced.
Swiggy, which also recently forayed into the grocery delivery segment, raised $700 million in a round led by US-based investment fund Invesco. The round also saw participation from new investors such as Baron Capital Group, Sumeru Ventures, IIFL AMC Late Stage Tech Fund, Kotak, Axis Growth Avenues AIF-I, Sixteenth Street Capital, Ghisallo, Smile Group and Seganti Capital. It also saw participation from existing Swiggy investors such as Alpha Wave Global, Qatar Investment Authority, and ARK Impact, and Prosus. Swiggy was valued at $10.7 billion in this round, putting it in the position of Decacorn – a unicorn valued at over $10 billion. In its previous $1.25 billion fundraise in July last year, it was valued at $5.5 billion. Meanwhile, the market capitalization of Swiggy’s major rival Zomato, which went public last year, closed at $9.6 billion on Monday in the last few trading sessions.
In a statement, the company said that the latest fundraising will allow Swiggy to accelerate growth on its core platform (the food delivery segment), in addition to investing in Instamart (grocery delivery vertical).
“The GMV of our food delivery business was achieved in 40 months, demonstrating Swiggy’s platform benefits, taking Instamart only 17 months. We will double this to create more categories in line with our mission of providing unparalleled convenience to the Indian consumers.
Recently, Swiggy announced a $700 million investment in the expansion of its quick-commerce vertical Instamart – a segment that is seeing intense competition from players such as Zepto, BlinkIt (formerly Grofers), and Dunzo, which are currently in the business of expanding their business. That is backed by Reliance. industry and Google,
Separately, Ola Electric, which claims to have built the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturing facility, received $200 million from Tekne Private Ventures, Alpine Opportunity Fund, Edelweiss and others, valued at $5 billion. The company, which operates on a direct-to-consumer model, has recently faced customer complaints regarding delivery delays, charger installation, etc. with the S1 range of scooters. Ola Electric’s last major funding of $200 million took place in September at a valuation of $3 billion, while parent company Ola Cabs, which is preparing itself for an initial public offering, last month raised debt-ridden loans from global institutional investors. Raised $500 million in financing. Ola Electric separately in December raised about $53 million in a financing round led by Temasek.