What’s the best way to describe Swiggy? Owner of in-house restaurant brands, one of India’s major foodtech companies, and the largest in delivery. In terms of valuation and quantum of money raised, Zomato, its Delhi-NCR-based rival, is bigger. But Swiggy has a larger fleet for delivery—a game the Bengaluru-based company is trying hard to win. And that’s where the money seems to be. The company is present in eight cities and has announced that it delivers 4 million orders a month.
SWIGGY
Bundl Technologies Private Limited
As per MCA records
Sriharsha Majety
Co-founder
Bengaluru
Headquarters
INVESTORS
COMPETITORS
What has Swiggy been up to, in the last year?
This was a year when Swiggy raised $80 million from Naspers. This added another marquee investor to the company’s cap table. It has been an eventful year for the foodtech company. Swiggy realised in FY17 that it has to increase margins to stay relevant. Its pressure on the delivery personnel (to decrease their commision) and the restaurants (to increase the commission given to Swiggy) was met with swift resistance. It has also entered the market as a supplier and has started The Bowl Company, which caters to Koramangala—an upmarket suburb in Bengaluru. This “dark restaurant” delivered 270 orders a day in July 2017, according to a blog post by Swiggy, and took 7% of the market share in the area.
Results
Rs 132.2 crore: The revenue Swiggy made from its operations in the year ending March 2017. The figure grew 6.5-times over last year. The fact that the company claims it reached 4 million orders a month reflects on the steep climb in revenue.
Rs 100 crore: The revenue made by Swiggy from restaurants as service income.
6X: The multiple by which Swiggy increased its revenue from both, restaurants as service fee, and customers as delivery fee
Rs 135.4 crore: How much Swiggy spent on delivering the food ordered on the platform. The cost shot up three times over last year, in correspondence with the ramp up in the number of orders.
Rs 205.1 crore: The loss Swiggy clocked in for the year. This includes employee benefits and expenses as well as the cost of operations.
Rs 7.7 lakh: This was Swiggy’s revenue from its cloud kitchen brand, The Bowl Company, operational in select areas in Bengaluru earlier this year.
Rs 52.2 crore: Spent by Swiggy in FY17 in marketing and advertising expenses. The number is up over two times year-on-year.
4: The number of revenue streams Swiggy has opened up: service income, delivery fee, advertising income and charging for food as a product.
Where is the company headed?
Its biggest rival Zomato has raised another round of funding from Ant Financial and acquired last-mile delivery company Runnr to ramp up its food delivery. Swiggy will have to match Zomato blow for blow and build more depth in its supply, partly by adding restaurants and starting more house brands just like The Bowl Company. In the first half of 2018, Deliveroo is expected to make its foray into India. Expect big discounts from Swiggy in the next year.
Clarification: A previous version of the copy said that the share of The Bowl Company was at 70% in the areas it was launched in. It has been updated to 7%. We regret the error.
