Prosus Nets $2 Bn From Total Investment In Swiggy

Global investment giant Prosus has raked in $2 Bn from its total investment in foodtech major Swiggy, which made its stock market debut today (November 13) at a valuation of $11.3 Bn.

Prosus, which is the largest shareholder in Swiggy, sold shares worth $500 Mn as part of the initial public offering (IPO), implying it made more than 3X returns on its investment after divesting a partial stake in the Sriharsha Majety-led company.

In a statement, Prosus, which counts BYJU’S, Tencent and Delivery Hero among its portfolio companies, said it has retained a 25% stake in Swiggy following the IPO.

Fabricio Bloisi, chief executive officer of Prosus, said that Swiggy is on a strong growth trajectory as a public company after having diversified into new categories and expanding into new cities.

“India remains a key growth market for Prosus given the country’s impressive digital transformation in the consumer and enterprise sectors. We are excited about the region and see huge opportunities for value creation including a strong IPO pipeline within our current portfolio,” he added.

Prosus has invested more than $7 Bn in Indian startups so far, according to Inc42 and Tracxn data– mostly via large ticket sizes and investments in companies like Swiggy, Meesho, PharmEasy, The Good Glamm Group, Urban Company, among others.

Apart from Prosus, which joined Swiggy’s cap table in 2017, early backers Accel India and Elevation Capital are set to make more than 34X returns by selling a portion of the stake in the company.

Earlier today, Inc42 reported that shares of Swiggy listed at a 8% premium on the NSE. The stock debuted at INR 420 as against its IPO issue price of INR 390 per share.

With this, the food delivery and quick commerce giant joined the list of new-age tech companies that have gone public this year, including the likes of Ola Electric, Unicommerce, FirstCry, ixigo, Menhood, among others.

It is pertinent to note that Swiggy’s IPO was India’s second largest public listing this year after Hyundai Motor India’s IPO, which drew bids worth $5.5 Bn on the final day of subscription.

At least 500 employees of Swiggy were set to turn crorepati after Swiggy’s highly-anticipated public listing on account of stock options granted to them by the company.

Swiggy’s public debut comes at a time when it has been losing its market share in both food delivery and quick commerce segments to rivals such as Zomato and Zepto. Moreover, the competition has intensified with giants like Reliance Retail and Flipkart also launching their rapid delivery services.