Swish, the 10-minute food delivery startup, has raised $14 million (roughly Rs 122 crore) in a series A funding round led by UK-based Hara Global. The company’s existing investor, Accel, also participated in the round, according to filings made with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
Moneycontrol was the first to report, in January, that the Bengaluru-based startup was in talks to raise funds from Hara Global. Among others who participated in the round include prominent angel investors like Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal, Kunal Shah-led QED Innovation, and Softbank’s Sumer Juneja.
As it happens, Juneja was also one of the earliest investors in Swiggy and had taken a bet on the food delivery major in 2015 while at Norwest Venture Partners. Meanwhile, Softbank too has remained a key investor in Swiggy, which has now become one of the largest 10-minute food delivery players with its offerings Bolt and Snacc.
According to the filings, sourced via TheKredible, Hara Global will own 13.33 percent of the company post the funding round, while Accel will have a 27.24 percent stake. Meanwhile, Swish co-founders Sureshkumar Sarana, Aniket Sunil Shah, and Ujjwal Sukheja will each hold a 16.28 percent share in the company.
Swish previously raised $2 million from Accel in a seed round last November.
This comes at a time when competition in the emerging ten-minute food delivery space is heating up. In addition to Swiggy’s Bolt and Snacc, Zomato, Zepto Cafe, Bistro by Blinkit are also large competitors that have launched in this space. At the same time, other companies such as BigBasket, are preparing to enter the arena in a move that will further intensify the competition and divide the market share between more players.
Large players toying with the idea of rapid delivery of food and tasting initial success in the industry will give these well-funded companies an edge over the others. This essentially means the smaller startups like Swish that do not have deep pockets or large investor backing, despite having the first-mover advantage, may find it challenging to fend of competition.
At the same time, the Indian food delivery market has been facing a broad-based slowdown in demand, as even larger players like Swiggy and Zomato have found it challenging to grow their order values and transacting customer base over the last few quarters.
A partner at a large venture capital firm had earlier told Moneycontrol that Swish was the company that spotted the 10-minute food delivery opportunity. “You must give a little credit to Swish. It is the trigger for everyone tripling down on 15-minute food deliveries,” the partner had said.
He was, however, quick to add that Swish needs to executive extremely well “otherwise what moat will Swish have when compared with Swiggy (Snacc/Bolt), Blinkit’s Bistro or even Zepto Cafe?”
Since Swish was founded in May 2024, large players have become more prominent in the space. Meanwhile, others, like ride-hailing major Ola and hyperlocal discovery platform Magicpin, have also taken a stab at quick food delivery.
While a clear winner is yet to emerge, analysts had concluded that rapid food delivery will be a good value add for existing giants like Swiggy and Zomato which will have an edge over others as they have dabbled in the space for longer.
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