Baron Capital marks up Swiggy’s valuation to $15.1 billion

MUMBAI: In a boost for IPO-bound Swiggy, its US-based investor Baron Capital has marked up the company’s valuation yet again. Filings made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed that Swiggy has been valued at $15.1 billion as of March 31 by the investor. This is about 25% higher than the $12.1 billion valuation which the firm had ascribed to Swiggy as of December 31, 2023.

Baron Capital had participated in the Bengaluru-based food delivery company’s last large funding round as part of which it had garnered $700 million from investors led by Invesco at a valuation of $10.7 billion in January 2022. Swiggy did not comment on the development.

The company has filed for draft IPO papers with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) through the confidential filing route. Regulatory filings made by the company with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs had showed that it received shareholder nod to float a $1.2 billion IPO. The company which rivals listed peer Zomato aims to raise up to Rs 3,750 ($450 million) crore by issuing fresh equity shares and up to Rs 6,664 crore ($800 million) by way of an offer for sale (OFS) component. The company also plans to raise about Rs 750 crore from anchor investors in a pre-IPO round.

Dutch technology investor Prosus is the largest shareholder in Swiggy with close to 32% stake, data sourced from market research firm Tracxn showed. SoftBank, Accel and Elevation Capital are other investors in the company. Like most other late stage startups, Swiggy has been attempting to reduce cash burn and move towards profitability. Earlier this year, it let go of some 350-400 employees or around 7% of its workforce in its second round of layoffs in a bid to check costs and build in more efficiencies.

Zomato leads the food delivery market with a 57% share while Swiggy holds 43%, a study conducted by JM Financial earlier this year showed.