Swiggy, one of India’s top food delivery services, has refueled its tanks after raising $15 million led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The company said a number of existing investors also participated, but it didn’t name them directly.
The round is being called a Series D even though it is dwarfed by the $35 million Series C that the company pulled in at the start of the year. This new raise takes Swiggy to $75 million in investor capital since its launch two years ago.
Bangalore-based Swiggy was definitely a late entrant to the food delivery market, which, in India, is dominated by the likes of Zomato — a company valued at more than $1 billion — and Rocket Internet’s FoodPanda, which has had its challenges in India. Swiggy aims to stand out by offering a more curated list of restaurants and services, not to mention its own in-house delivery fleet rather than contractors. It charges between 15-25 percent in commission to restaurants and for smaller orders, customers pay between 20 and 24 rupees depending on their city.
Currently, Swiggy is in eight cities where it has more than 9,000 restaurants on its platform. The company said this new money will be used to develop its technology, expand its selection of restaurants and increase its customer experience. Already, the company claims an average delivery time of 37 minutes — that, it said, is the fastest in India. Swiggy didn’t give any figures for its customer base, however.