Baron Capital Marks Up Swiggy’s Valuation To $15.1 Bn

US-based asset manager Baron Capital has marked up the fair value of its investment in food and grocery delivery platform Swiggy, thereby pushing up the IPO-bound startup’s valuation to $15.1 Bn as of March 31, 2024.

This is an increase of 25% from the $12.1 Bn valuation the asset management firm ascribed to Swiggy as of December 31, 2023.

As per Baron Capital’s quarterly report, the firm increased the fair value of its stake in Swiggy to $109 Mn, up almost 42% from its original investment of $76.7 Mn.

The development comes at a time when Swiggy is preparing for a mega initial public offering (IPO). In April, Swiggy turned into a public company as part of its preparations for the public issue.

Later, Swiggy reportedly filed its IPO papers via the confidential pre-filing route with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) after receiving the approval from its shareholders for an INR 10,414.1 Cr ($1.2 Bn) public issue.

The startup’s IPO offer will include fresh issue of shares worth INR 3,750.1 Cr (about $449 Mn) and an offer-for-sale component worth INR 6,664 Cr (around $799 Mn).

Founded in 2014 by Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy, Phani Kishan Addepalli and Rahul Jaimini (who left the company in 2020), Swiggy started as a food delivery startup. Later, it launched its quick commerce vertical – Swiggy Instamart. It also offers a courier service, Swiggy Genie.

Swiggy’s loss reportedly stood at $207 Mn (INR 1,730 Cr) during the first nine months of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). In contrast, the decacorn reported a net loss of INR 4,179.3 Cr in FY23.

The Bengaluru-based startup also clocked a revenue of around INR 8,505 Cr during April-December 2023. The startup’s operating revenue stood at INR 8,264.4 Cr in the entirety of FY23.

Notably, Swiggy’s listed competitor, Zomato, has seen its share price surge over the last year or so. Zomato’s valuation stood at INR 1.11 Lakh Cr (about $ 13 Bn) at the close of Monday’s (June 3) trading session.

After reporting its maiden profitable quarter in Q1 FY24, Zomato posted profits in the next three quarters of the year as well. Its consolidated profit after tax (PAT) zoomed 26.8% to INR 175 Cr in Q4 of FY24 from INR 138 Cr in the preceding quarter. Operating revenue jumped over 8% to INR 3,562 Cr in Q4 FY24 from INR 3,288 Cr in Q3 FY24.