Swiggy CEO says he came up with idea of company for college project, forgot about it later

Swiggy co-founder and CEO, Sriharsha Majety, made a rare public appearance during Swiggy’s initial public offering (IPO) launch at the National Stock Exchange (NSE), reflecting on the journey that brought his idea from a college project to one of India’s leading food delivery services. Majety, known for maintaining a low public profile, recounted the inception of Swiggy and shared insights into the early days of his entrepreneurial career.

Majety first conceived the idea of Swiggy during a project at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta. At the NSE listing ceremony, he described how the idea, initially born from a class project, lay dormant after its completion, almost forgotten until years later when the concept resurfaced under different circumstances. "I completely forgot about it after that college project finished. And then, in a very different way, [I] again came across it, without knowing it [consciously]," he shared.

When Majety began his entrepreneurial career, he initially launched a logistics venture named Bundl. However, the company faced significant challenges and struggled to scale. It was at this critical juncture, in 2014, that Majety, along with co-founders Nandan Reddy and Rahul Jaimini, decided to pivot Bundl’s business model. The team repurposed their logistics infrastructure to create Swiggy, focused entirely on food delivery.

Majety noted the rare nature of seeing his college idea come to life, emphasising the significance of the transformation from concept to one of India’s most successful food tech platforms. “For that idea to have first gotten executed is in itself a rarity. But to execute it at the size and scale that we have right now is an absolute miracle,” he said.