INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Naspers, the South African investment giant, is back at it again in India! Days after backing educational startup Byju by leading a $540
million investment, it has led a $1 billion investment in food delivery company Swiggy.
The new round sees Chinese internet and Naspers ally
Tencent join the party, alongside fellow new investorsHillhouse Capital and Wellington Management Company
Existing backers returning to take part in this round includeDST Global, Meituan Dianping and Coatue Management.
The deal is the largest
investment in a food delivery company outside of China, and it means Swiggy is one of the few in the billion-dollar-round club
Others include Flipkart, which is now owned by Walmart, fintech startup Paytm, and OYO, which raised $1 billion from SoftBank Vision Fund,
Southeast Asia Grab and others in September.
Swiggy was founded in 2014 and it claims to work with50,000 restaurants in more than 50 cities
That up from 35,000 restaurants six months ago and the company claims it has doubled its GMV over that same period, although — like most
private companies — it didn&t divulge specific data
Swiggy major geographical expansion saw it move into 42 cities in tier-two and tier-three India.
The company said in a statement that it
plans to use the capital for hiring machine learning and engineering talent, and further its AI technology to improve matchingand discovery
inside its service.
Swiggy closest competitors include fellow unicorn Zomato, Ola-owned FoodPanda as well as Uber Eats, which came to India
around 18 months ago.
The deal is a real triple down on India and Swiggy from Naspers, which has just seen the valuation of Byju soar to
some $3.7 billion up from under $1 billion last year and first backed Swiggy in Februarybefore going back for more in June.
You&d imagine
that the Naspers link is also a major factor behind Tencent arrival
The South African firm is (famously) an early investor in Tencent and, despite a well-reported share sale this year, it still maintains
around 33 percent ownership in the internet firm — that worth around $120 billion as of today share price.
The deal takes Swiggy to $1.26
That most recent June-round was $210 million at a $1.3 billion valuation
Swiggy isn&t disclosing a new valuation but Economic Times reports it as $3.3 billion.
