Swiggy, India’s leading grocery delivery startup, will invest $ 700 million in its Instamart express grocery delivery service, significantly increasing competition for high-speed trade in the world’s second largest market.
The SoftBank-backed startup that launched Instamart 2020 in two Indian cities said Thursday that the fast grocery delivery service is now available in 18 cities, processing over a million orders a week.
Fast food delivery is making its way into markets around the world. Zapp, a UK-based startup that promises to deliver critical items in 15-20 minutes, is raising about $ 100 million in a round led by Atomico, GIC and Lightspeed, two sources familiar with the matter told me.
In India, too, more and more startups are starting to explore the space. Mumbai-based Zepto is aggressively expanding its fast delivery startup in several Indian cities. The startup, which was founded earlier this year, recently announced a $ 60 million fundraiser and is already in talks for a much larger round of funding, according to a source familiar with the matter. (Zomato, also Swiggy’s main rival in India, previously attempted to break into this area but stopped efforts after poor traction.)
Swiggy said it is adding a seller-run dark store to its platform every day. The startup hopes to have deliveries in 15 minutes by January 2022 by building its network of dark stores close to the majority of its customers.
“Given our current growth path, Instamart will achieve an annualized GMV run rate of $ 1 billion over the next three quarters. Given that our grocery delivery business has an annual GMV turnaround rate of $ 3 billion and the rapid growth of Instamart, we’re excited to see our convenience mission come to life on a large scale, ”said Sriharsha Majety, Co-Founder and CEO of Swiggy, in a statement.
The announcement comes at a time when Swiggy, who has raised $ 1.25 billion this year, is finalizing a new fundraiser of over $ 500 million that would be valued at over $ 10 billion, reported TechCrunch two months ago. Invesco is leading the way, the report says.
