There appears to be a race to be part of the Indian food-tech and delivery startups. Swiggy, the market leader in this space is receiving increasing attention from several investors. Some of the world’s biggest investors, SoftBank, Tencent and Alibaba are reported to be in talks to invest in the foodtech startup. Swiggy’s pre-money valuation itself is reported to be of the order of $600-650 million.
A report in Economic Times indicates that SoftBank is looking at picking up a minority stake in Bundl Technologies, the Bangalore based company that owns Swiggy and is prepared to pay up to $200 to 250 million for it. Meanwhile Tencent, the Chinese major, in partnership with Flipkart is also keen to make an investment in the food delivery startup. If Swiggy accepts this investment proposal the two together may bring in another $100 million.
Another Chinese giant Alibaba which competes with Tencent in China and internationally is also reported to be showing interest in Swiggy and its funding arm Ant Financial may be the vehicle Alibaba will choose to take the position, though at this stage, only talks have been initiated if these reports are to be believed.
Swiggy has, in fact, went on to claim that due to its high level of performance and market leading position it presents itself as a natural choice for investors to seek opportunities.
Interestingly, Swiggy’s rival Zomato is also in the news with Chinese investors looking at putting in $200 million in it and the valuation of Zomato is being placed at $1.1 billion. There were even serous moves made earlier to merge the two, but did not materialize.
The food delivery business in the country is said to be growing at a whopping 150% and it is also true that the top Chinese investors are focusing a lot on the Indian startup ecosystem and have set apart substantial sums to be invested here.