Rahul Dravid, Karan Johar & Other Celebrities Join Investment Bandwagon In Swiggy’s Pre-IPO

Cricketers Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan, tennis star Rohan Bopanna, director Karan Johar and actor and entrepreneur Ashish Chowdhry are the latest to have joined the string of sports and entertainment celebrities backing foodtech major Swiggy in its pre-IPO round.

However, the financial transactions remain undisclosed.

This investment is part of Swiggy’s pre-IPO shares traded in the unlisted market, ET reported, adding that of this, around 200,000 shares have already been acquired by prominent individuals.

Inc42’s queries to Swiggy on the development remained unanswered till the time of filing the story.

The development comes at the heart of sports and entertainment celebrities making a beeline to grab a pie of Swiggy’s pre-IPO shares.

Last week, actor Madhuri Dixit became the second Indian celebrity after Amitabh Bachchan to have bought a stake in Swiggy. 

Earlier this month, listed porcelain insulators manufacturer Modern Insulators bought Swiggy shares worth almost INR 5 Cr. Meanwhile, 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.

Yesterday (September 24), the foodtech giant received approval from the Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) for its initial public offering. 

Following the nod, the startup will now file two updated draft red herring prospectus (DRHPs) – one addressing SEBI’s comments on its confidential DRHP and another seeking public comments, Moneycontrol reported citing sources.

Although the exact size of the public offer is yet to be announced, the startup is likely looking to raise $1.4 Bn via IPO. 

Swiggy’s IPO is the most anticipated public listing for investors, as highlighted in Inc42’s recent investor survey after H1 2024.

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. 

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 rival Zomato has been consistently improving its profit margins since first turning profitable in Q1 FY24.

But the silver lining is that the foodtech 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.