Flipkart may invest in food delivery startup Swiggy soon

By Raaghav G R

Posted on November 17, 2017

The Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart may soon invest US $50 million (Rs. 327 crores) in the upcoming food delivery platform, Swiggy, according to officials from Flipkart. The Chinese internet giant, Tencent, may also participate in the round of funding according to the officials. The Chinese internet giant is expected to contribute another US $50 million in the investment deal taking the total investment in Swiggy up to US $100 million. There has also been some rumour that Zomato and Swiggy may merge but both the food delivery startups have denied this so far. Read more on Investments

Flipkart, which clocked a net profit of US $4 billion this year (2017) has been looking to expand its services beyond the domain of e-commerce for some time. This investment in Swiggy may help Flipkart achieve that objective. Flipkart is reportedly developing a chat interface for customers where customers can order items belonging to almost any category (including food and groceries). Flipkart has also recently ventured into the grocery delivery segment with the launch Supermart but the success of Supermart will depend largely on whether it has hyperlocal delivery capabilities. Flipkart’s logistics provider, eKart, may have helped Flipkart succeed in its e-commerce business but grocery delivery is a different ball game altogether. On the other hand, Flipkart’s investment in Swiggy will help it strengthen its hyperlocal delivery capabilities by a large margin. It will help Swiggy deliver food (both raw and cooked) to supermarkets and customers with more ease.

The other food delivery startups that got funded this year (2017) include the food delivery startup, TinMen which raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from MAPE Advisory Group during April, this year. The food delivery startup, Authenticook, raised Rs. 1.45 crores in Pre – Series round of funding from Booking.com during June, this year. The food delivery startup, Wegan Foods secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding from UAE’s princess, Sheikha Arwa Al Qassimi during June, this year. The food delivery startup, Scootsy, secured US $3.6 million (Rs. 23 crores) in Pre Series round of funding from Agnus Capital and Khattar Holdings during April, this year. The food delivery startup, Fassos, raised US $6.3 million (Rs. 41 crores) in Series D round of funding from Lightbox Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, RuNet South Asia and RB Investments during April, this year (2017) just to name a few. Read more on Startup News

Flipkart may invest in food delivery startup Swiggy soon