After Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit Picks Up Stake In IPO-Bound Swiggy

Actor Madhuri Dixit has become the second Indian celebrity after Amitabh Bachchan to have bought a minority stake in initial public offering (IPO)-bound foodtech major Swiggy.

As per Moneycontol, citing sources close to the development, Dixit along with coworking startup Innov8’s founder Ritesh Malik invested INR 3 Cr in Swiggy with each infusing INR 1.5 Cr. 

The duo procured shares from the secondary market via transactions facilitated by Swiggy’s investment banker Avendus and each share was priced at INR 345, the report added. 

Inc42 reached out to Swiggy for comment on the development, but the startup declined to respond.

This comes a few weeks after Amitabh Bachchan’s family office bought a stake in Swiggy.

Meanwhile, several investors have attempted to buy shares of its IPO, following the rally in the broader Indian bourses and positive investor sentiments. 

Yesterday (September 17), Modern insulators bought Swiggy shares worth almost 5 Cr. Earlier this month, Hindustan Composites said it would acquire 1.5 Lakh shares, or a 0.01% stake, of Swiggy for a cash consideration of INR 5.17 Cr.

The development comes at the heart of the foodtech major gearing up for the IPO and was reported to file its DRHP this week for over $1 Bn. The diversified food biz startup is reportedly awaiting to get approval from the markets regulator to proceed with the IPO filing

For the uninitiated, Swiggy filed for an IPO  via a confidential pre-filing route with the SEBI in April, aiming for a fresh issue of equity shares worth INR 3,750 Cr ($450 Mn) and an offer-for-sale (OFS) component worth INR 6,664 Cr. 

Introduced by SEBI in November 2022, the confidential filing route allows companies to submit their DRHP without making the details public initially. This is different from the traditional filing process, where the DRHP is immediately available for public scrutiny.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Swiggy plans to get shareholders’ nod on October 3 to raise INR 5,000 Cr (about $600 Mn) through a fresh issue of shares and raise a total of $1.4 Bn through its IPO.

Founded in 2014 by Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy, Phani Kishan Addepalli, and Rahul Jaimini, Swiggy started off as a food delivery startup but later forayed into the quick commerce segment with Instamart.

Swiggy’s IPO comes despite the company‘s failing to turn profitable. However, its counterpart, Zomato has been consistently improving its profit margins since first turning profitable in Q1 FY24.

But the silver lining is that the food tech major has managed to trim its losses in FY24. The total loss amounted to Rs 2,350.2 Cr for the year 2023-24 (FY24), a 43% slump over the INR 4,179.3 Cr loss in FY23.

On the market share front, Swiggy’s quick commerce arm Instamart has been losing its chunk to competitors Blinkit and Zepto. 

While Zomato’s Blinkit is currently the market leader in the space, Zepto has raised millions of dollars in funding in recent months.

Even on the food delivery front, Goldman Sachs has estimated that Zomato holds a 56-57% market share, ahead of Swiggy, in the food delivery market.