Timeline: How late-entrant Swiggy became India’s most valued food-tech startup

Swiggy was one of India’s biggest startup success stories of 2018.

From entering the prestigious club of unicorns (startups valued at over $1 billion) to becoming India’s most valued foodtech venture, the Bengaluru-based food delivery startup had many highs this year.

Most recently, on Dec.20, it raised $1 billion (around Rs7,000 crore) in the largest-ever funding round by an Indian food tech startup. This round reportedly values the four-year-old startup at $3.3 billion, according to analysts.

Now, Swiggy, which joined the food-tech race in India later than some of its rivals, is the fifth most valued startup in India, analysts said. It has left behind some of its older rivals like Zomato, which was founded in 2008 but was valued at $1.1 billion in February.

But Swiggy’s success has come after several speed bumps.

The first one was even before its inception. In August 2013, a few years after graduating from BITS Pilani Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy founded Bundl Technologies, a logistics and shipping startup for small sellers retailing on e-commerce platforms such as Flipkart and Amazon India. The venture failed to take off and within a year, the two shelved their original business model to start Swiggy.

Within a year, Swiggy was faced with a major rival, Zomato, a well-established brand in restaurant discovery space at the time, which decided to launch food delivery operations.

Here’s a look at how Swiggy overcame all hurdles to become a household name in urban India: