Stories

Swiggy - a master
class in scale

Beginnings
2014

The Beginning

We first met Harsha over a Skype call in August, 2014. Swiggy was still pre-launch then – in fact, just a splash page. At that time, the food delivery space was extremely competitive, with plenty of well-funded teams and rampant discounting. But we had not been able to build conviction on any of the larger players and business models.

However, after just one conversation with Harsha, we knew Swiggy was different. Harsha’s customer obsession and real understanding of industry pain points stood out very clearly. He had deep conviction that a platform like Swiggy should own delivery operations, ensuring complete control over the most critical factor in the user’s experience: on-time delivery. Swiggy prioritized reliability over discounts as well as the number of restaurants on the platform. This model also enabled restaurants without delivery capabilities to reach a far wider audience. It was a ground-level insight that other start-ups had missed completely.

August 2014
Swiggy's first pitch deckSwiggy's first pitch deck

“At the time, one would typically rate a restaurant a ‘good’ service provider if they delivered within an hour."

"And we just couldn’t understand why this was so if Domino’s could deliver in thirty minutes. It’s a relatively easy problem if you take a logistics-first view and hack away at it. We couldn’t see how the problem would be solved the way competitors were thinking about it – the bare minimum acceptable customer experience needed us to own delivery. We believed this category could pop-open only logistics-first, if it had to become large.”

- Harsha Majety, co-founder & CEO, Swiggy

October 2014
Swiggy's website at launchSwiggy's website at launch

Meeting Harsha and Nandan in person made us even more excited about their vision.

However, we sat tight until the company had a tech co-founder – we knew that tech was going to be critical to win this space.

We met the team again in October 2014. By now, Rahul had joined as the tech co-founder, which was very encouraging. Swiggy had also been live for a few weeks now, and early data proved that the team's customer service focus was getting results. User retention was strong, and customers were ordering very frequently, even though Swiggy was charging a delivery fee on every order.


Swiggy's second officeSwiggy's second office

“We picked only the ‘good’ restaurants that didn’t deliver or had a problem with delivery, so that the need was acutely felt."

"Where restaurants didn’t want to partner with us but we wanted them onboard, we bought food ourselves and took photographs at home. Once some of the restaurants realized we were helping them get business they would have lost otherwise, they started asking us for hundreds of pamphlets and pushed these themselves to customers – and that drove the flywheel."

Harsha Majety, co-founder & CEO, Swiggy

We had no doubt that Harsha, Nandan, and Rahul were the strongest team in this space. So we went all in.

January 2015
Curry

Elevation invested $1M in January 2015

At the time we signed a term sheet with Swiggy in October 2014 they had:

25Restaurants

in Koramangala, Bengaluru

35Orders/Day

Average daily order total

04Orders/ Month

4 orders per customer per month

35Minutes

Average delivery time

April 2015

1000 daily orders

By April 2015, Swiggy had 1,000 average daily orders

May 2015
Swiggy real time order tracking

Launch of real time order tracking

Swiggy launches real-time order tracking, which receives deep customer love, and has now become the industry standard

June 2015
Norwest Venture Partners logo
Elevation logo
Accel logo

$16.5M Raised

$16.5M raised from Norwest, Elevation, Accel, Apoletto

September 2015

10,000 Daily Orders

By September 2015, Swiggy had hit the ground running, with 10,000 average daily orders

2015

$42 Million

“We were going through a rough patch, when in 2015, in a great show of confidence, Elevation supported us by leading a round when a lot of things were unproven - that was probably one of the most pivotal moments for us in Swiggy’s journey.”

Harsha Majety, co-founder & CEO, Swiggy

January 2016
Elevation logo
Accel logo
Norwest logo
BVP Logo

$42M Raised

Elevation leads a $42M round; other investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, Norwest, Accel

May 2017

100,000 daily orders

By May 2017, Swiggy was sitting at 100,000 average daily orders

May 2017-Dec 2018
Elevation Logo
Naspers Logo
DST Logo
Meituan Logo
Coatue Logo
Tencent Logo
Hillhouse Capital Logo
Wellington Management Logo

$1.3B Raised

From May 2017 to Dec 2018 Swiggy raised $1.3B from Elevation, Naspers, DST, Meituan, Coatue, Tencent, Hillhouse Capital, Wellington Management, Accel, Bessemer Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Harmony Partners

September 2018
Suprdaily logo

SuprDaily Acquisition

Swiggy’s vision expands beyond food delivery to deliver the same level of customer delight across multiple categories; this journey starts with the acquisition of SuprDaily

February 2019

1,000,000 Daily Orders

September 2019
Swiggy Genie

Swiggy Genie Launches

Swiggy launches its pickup and drop service, Swiggy Genie

August 2020

Instamart launches

Swiggy forays into grocery with Instamart

Jul 2021

$1.2B Raised

Swiggy raises $1.25B in a round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, its first investment in the Indian food delivery category

Jan 2022

Decacorn Status

Swiggy became India's fourth decacorn after a $700M funding led by Invesco

Today
Swiggy delivery rider on a motorbike

Swiggy Today

We feel privileged to have been partners with Swiggy in executing their bold vision, where today they are:

  • Market leader in the food delivery & quick commerce space
  • The go-to destination for all local deliveries; Instamart, Genie, Supr Daily
  • Present in 500+ Indian cities

One big contributor to Swiggy’s success has been Harsha’s ability to build a best-in-class team at every stage. We still share team slides from Swiggy’s old pitch decks with younger portfolio companies to set a benchmark for the kind of teams they should aspire to build.

While Swiggy’s journey and growth over the years has been well documented, the most rewarding part of the partnership has been seeing Harsha become a phenomenal leader, and build an amazing team and culture. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Swiggy as they scale greater heights.

Beyond

“Swiggy has firmly cracked the food delivery market in India, but this is just the beginning. I get goosebumps when I think about the possibilities that lie ahead for Swiggy as we take our DNA of customer obsession and flawless execution to other verticals. The first 5 years of Swiggy’s journey have been really special, and I can’t wait to see what the next 10 years have in store.”

Mukul Arora, Partner, Elevation Capital