Swiggy’s IPO draws over $15 billion in bids from major investors, signaling strong demand

Big investors including Norway’s sovereign wealth fund Norges and Fidelity have placed bids worth more than $15 billion in Swiggy’s India IPO, 25 times the $605 million portion reserved for such investors, four sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Swiggy, a SoftBank-backed Indian food and grocery delivery giant, will next week launch its $1.35-billion IPO that will be country’s second-biggest stock offering this year. The bidding process is ongoing.

After a recent correction in stock markets, the company has reduced its estimated valuation from the IPO to $11.3 billion, 25 per cent less than an earlier estimation of $15 billion.

The offer price of the IPO has been set in the range of ₹371 to ₹390.

Signalling growing interest in India’s food delivery and “quick commerce” space — where goods are delivered in 10 minutes — the IPO anchor book reserved for big investors has already received bids worth more than $15 billion, said the sources, who declined to be named as the process is confidential.

Top investors include Norway’s sovereign wealth fund Norges Bank Investment Management, Fidelity International and US-based Capital Group, said three of the sources.

The fourth source said BlackRock, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board are also among investors.

None of the investors or Swiggy immediately responded to a request for comment.

Research firm Datum Intelligence expects quick commerce sales in India to hit $6 billion this year up from $100 million in 2020.

Swiggy said on Wednesday that it is opening bigger warehouses and reducing delivery times as it bets that its quick commerce business will overtake its main food delivery operations.

Swiggy has 538 warehouses to deliver its quick commerce orders, with an average size of 4,000 square feet, 42 per cent bigger than last year, CFO Rahul Bothra said.

The company started operations in 2014 with food delivery, but Bothra said that quick commerce, which it rolled out in 2020, is now worth 40 per cent of the size of its food delivery business.

Indian companies including Swiggy and its main rival Zomato as well as billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance are betting big on quick commerce as they jostle to deliver everything from milk and cosmetics to iPhones within minutes, outpacing peers like Amazon on delivery times.

The company management said its growth is primed on the changing consumption patterns, especially among the Gen Z, and added that it is hoping to beat the market growth for many years.