Swiggy, food order and delivery startup launched in 2014 in Bangalore has its own excursion, loaded up with many ups and downs, highs and lows yet what added to its triumphant position today is the predictable endeavors to adjust the regular evolving factors, passion to serve the clients, predictable sight into the logistics operations and the never withdraw mentality of its founders Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Sharma and Rahul Jamini.
Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Sharma started with a technology product Bundl in 2013 in order to connect courier companies of the country. However, they soon had to close it in order to explore the food delivery space.
Swiggy – The Evolution of food in India
2015
- Within a year of its launch, Swiggy partnered with different other restaurants in order to increase its user engagement. What separated it from different players is their interest in building a legitimate connection with their very delivery boys. It particularly centered around client experience because of which their clients didn’t have any issue when they started charging for the food orders.
- Seeing their plan of action working consistently, numerous financial specialists got keen on funding the endeavor and Swiggy got its first check of $2 million from Accel and SAIF Partners. In the same year, the two VCs again funded the startup along with Norwest. By then, the startup had more than 100 restaurants onboard and was delivering more than 70,000 orders on a month to month premise.
2016
- Food order and delivering startup, Swiggy raised $15 million in Series D funding from Bessemer Venture Partners. Along with this, different existing investors namely New York-based Harmony Partners and Singapore based RB also took part in the funding round. Funds provided by these investors took the total funding of Swiggy to $75.5 million. The funds raised will help in increasing the development rate of the startup with improved client involvement at its core. Improved Client Involvement will include incorporating innovation overhauls, a more extensive spread of restaurants to look over, and better conveyance proficiency.
2017
- With 6x development in 3 years of its launch, Swiggy was driving the Indian food tech due to its client comprehension and flexibility. Understanding the need of our, it expanded speculation across different fields such as core engineering, data sciences, automation, machine learning, and personalization in 2017. The year also witnessed the raising of the biggest investment of $80 million in Series E funding round led by Naspers and other existing investors.
- Understanding the need of the hour, it expanded speculation across core engineering, automation, data sciences, machine learning, and personalization. The year saw Swiggy raising its greatest venture of $80 million in Series E round of funding led by Naspers. Along with this, other existing investors also took part in the funding round.
2018
- Swiggy POP is a feature launched in 2018 which helps young professionals order food from the neighborhood restaurants. The feature offers a menu of single-serve meals in the range of Rs.99-200. The menu includes food items like Indian Thalis, Bowl Meals, Biryani, Burgers, and Asian Combos. Swiggy POP offers its services in 7 cities namely Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kolkata.
- POP was introduced by the company in order to help the young working professionals order food in a hassle-free manner. The company has also partnered with different restaurants namely Hotel Sarvana Bhavan (Chennai), Paradise Biryani, Pista House (Hyderabad), Rolls Mania (Pune), Dum Matka (Mumbai), A2B Veg (Chennai) and as well as with the national chains namely Subway, Rajdhani, Burger King, and Taco Bells.
- The company also launched a Swiggy SUPER Membership Program in 2018 ensuring free deliveries to all the customers at any time of the day. They can order the meal from any of the restaurants serviceable in their area. It is a subscription program divided into 1 month and 3-month subscription plan. The price of the subscription plan for a duration of a month ranges between Rs.99-149. Moreover, clients need to have a basic cart value of Rs. 99 to be eligible for the benefits of Swiggy SUPER.
- Swiggy Super is being made available to a limited number of customers” across seven urban areas in India, yet is relied upon to be made accessible to all the customers of Swiggy in the coming months.
- Soon after accepting $100 million from Chinese financial specialist Meituan-Dianping and Naspers in February, the Bengaluru-based firm raised $210 million, taking its valuation to $1.3 billion. The unicorn recently closed the funding of faltering $1 billion led by existing speculator Naspers. New investors – Tencent, Hillhouse Capital, and Wellington Management Company also joined the funding round. With this amount of funding, Swiggy has left the contending Zomato and FoodPanda path behind in the space.
2019-2020
- Scootsy was acquired by Swiggy in 2018 for an aggregate Rs.50 crore but due to the insufficient amount of capital raised, it worked as an independent entity then.
- Swiggy in 2020 decided to merge its operations with Scootsy which is a Mumbai based food delivery service started in 2015. The transition to merge the operations is done in order to help Swiggy tap into Scootsy’s top of the line client and restaurant base, as it looks to set up a top-notch class inside the application while holding premium clients is progressively turning into the organization’s main concern.
- Swiggy propelled its own computerized wallet to empower single-tick checkout experience on its foundation known as ‘Swiggy Money’. It works as a digital wallet in association with ICICI Bank. This digital wallet will help the customers save money in order to use it for future orders.
- Customers choosing ‘Swiggy Money’ can get instant refunds and can utilize the money for simple checkouts and hassle-free payment for future food orders. Swiggy Money guarantees consistent and quick exchanges on food orders by minimizing the problems which occur at the time of payment improving the customer experience.
- Swiggy has partnered with different business kitchens, NGOs, and State governments to provide daily meals to the needy, underprivileged people, and stranded migrant laborers. The company has likewise set up a stage for individual donations by means of crowdfunding stage Milaap. The donation is totally willful and qualified for deduction under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961, for Indian donors.
- This crowdfunded activity has served in excess of 150,000 meals in a day and intends to serve at any rate 500,000 meals every day. Served as lunch and dinner, these meals have been planned in such a way that they are wholesome. Every meal includes an adequate amount of rice, dal, and vegetables in order to meet the dietary needs of the individuals.
The food ordering and delivering startup‘s vision and business strategy has impressed the investors and as well as the customers. Swiggy owns its delivery fleet of 40,000 executives that work with more than 35,000 restaurant partners across 15 Indian urban communities. This methodology, which permits the company to control its client experience, has played a major role in its success.
