Swiggy to sell its 12% stake in unicorn ride hailing startup Rapido

Sriharsha Majety, Group CEO, Swiggy

Food and grocery delivery major Swiggy will sell its 12 percent stake in Rapido, a ride hailing company that is now foraying into food delivery. While it is unclear how much money the company will make from its three-year-old, as deal negotiations are yet to begin, Swiggy will likely make handsome returns.

Swiggy invested in Rapido in 2022 and holds a stake of around 12 percent in the company which translates to around $120 million (about Rs 1,020 crore) at the current valuation of slightly over $1 billion (around Rs 8,500 crore).

The move to sell its stake in the company comes amid mounting losses for Swiggy. Its losses widened almost 96 percent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 1,197 crore in the first quarter (Q1) of financial year 2025-26 (FY26), up from Rs 611 crore in the same period a year ago.

At the same time, Swiggy's cash reserves are depleting. Swiggy had Rs 5,354 crore in cash and cash equivalents as of June 30, 2025, down 20 percent from Rs 6,695 crore as of Q4FY25 as the company accelerates expansion plans. Its arch rival, Zomato parent Eternal on July 21 said its cash balance increased marginally by Rs 33 crore from Rs 18,825 crore in Q4FY25 to Rs 18,857 crore in Q1FY26, making the fight more complex for Swiggy.

At home in Bengaluru, Rapido is aiming to break the duopoly that Zomato and Swiggy have enjoyed. Under the current regime, several restaurant owners have accused Zomato and Swiggy of high commissions, preferential treatment, higher customer acquisition costs (CACs) and more. Rapido however plans to reshape the food delivery landscape, which has made companies take notice.

On July 31, Swiggy said it is re-evaluating its approach because as Rapido scales, it may compete directly with Swiggy resulting in a potential conflict of interest.

The key question is what will new competition unlock for the consumer which we are not already doing at scale, Swiggy’s management said. “Many of the new offerings…will be towards ensuring that competition does not get a clear opening,” the shareholder letter added.

Swiggy’s around 12 percent minority stake has appreciated significantly since its investment, including incoming interest, Swiggy said.

“As a shareholder, we are extremely happy with their success and value-creation; but do acknowledge a potential conflict of interest that may arise in the future. and we are actively re-evaluating our investment due to the above developments,” it concluded.

Earlier, Swiggy group CEO Sriharsha Majety said he is ‘super agile and paranoid’ after Rapido's food delivery foray.

“We're definitely super agile and paranoid. And these are reactions that we're going to make. If we see a new opening that's going to be exciting, then we're going to be all over it,” Majety had said.