INDIA – Naspers Ltd., Africa’s largest company by market value has indicated that it plans to further invest in the Indian food delivery business, Swiggy through its third fund-raising round of the year.
According to a Bloomberg report, the funding will increase Naspers’ stake in Swiggy which is planning to raise US$600 million, its biggest to date.
People cited to be familiar with the matter said that there was an opportunity to buy stakes from investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners.
Based on those people’s comments, Tencent Holdings Ltd., the Chinese internet giant in which Naspers owns a 31% stake, is also planning to invest in the fundraising.
In February, Naspers led a US$100 million Series F investment in Swiggy, additional fund that followed an earlier US$80 million round designed to foster growth across India.
Naspers led the two previous funding rounds, raising the firm’s value to more than US$2 billion to become the its biggest shareholder.
As of the end of March, Naspers had a 22% stake in Swiggy which has grown to become one of India’s largest food ordering and delivery service.
It made a US$1.6 billion profit from the sale of its 11% stake in Indian e-commerce startup Flipkart earlier this year.
Revived interest in food ordering
Apart from having interests in travel business MakeMyTrip and classifieds business OLX, the South African internet and media group has been eying the food delivery service, with assets including Germany’s Delivery Hero AG and iFood in Brazil.
It also plans to invest in another Indian food company called Hungerbox, a food and beverage technology firm.
Founded in 2014, Swiggy has 35,000 restaurants and 40,000 delivery people listed on its platform across 15 cities.
Food delivery startups have this year bumped up financing from some of the world’s largest investment companies.
Zomato this month raised US$210 million from Alibaba’s payment arm, Ant Financial, eight months after receiving US$150 million from the same firm.
International firms have developed a taste for Indian online food.
Last year, Uber Technologies introduced UberEats across the country and Ola acquired Foodpanda’s local operations and pledged US$200 million to the unit during the same year.
