Swiggy Acquires LYNK To Foray Into Food & Grocery Retail Market

Foodtech decacorn Swiggy has acquired FMCG retail distribution company LYNK Logistics Ltd to enter the food and grocery retail market.

Post the acquisition, LYNK will continue to operate as an independent business and will be led by the cofounder and chief executive officer, Shekhar Bhende.

“With this acquisition, Swiggy enters India’s food and grocery retail market, which is amongst the world’s largest and fastest growing, estimated to be more than $570 Bn in size and expected to grow at 8% year-on-year,” the company said in a statement.

Founded in 2015 by Abinav Raja and Shekhar Bhende, LYNK enables leading FMCG brands to grow their retail presence through its network of 100,000+ retail stores across the top eight cities of India.

LYNK leverages a proprietary, integrated technology platform to power the retail distribution value chain across warehousing, inventory management and logistics operations. Its client portfolio includes Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Tata, Lakme, PepsiCo, Britannia, among others.

“LYNK is uniquely positioned in the retail distribution space with their brand-first, tech-led operating model and has demonstrated success with multiple FMCG brands. Our experience in supply chain and logistics gives Swiggy the unique opportunity to help LYNK scale up their offerings and empower retailers to serve their customers better, ” Sriharsha Majety, CEO of Swiggy, said.

LYNK was backed by Ramco Cements which approved the acquisition procedure in a meeting held on July 12.

Both Swiggy and Zomato have been seen actively acquiring and investing in smaller startups lately. For instance, Swiggy acquired Dineout in May last year in a $200 Mn deal from its previous owner Times Internet. After the deal, the founder joined Swiggy and continued to lead Dineout’s operation as an independent entity.

Swiggy Rival Zomato has also been aggressive when it comes to mergers and acquisitions.  Zomato had put $75 Mn in logistics tech company Shiprocket, invested $5 Mn in a kitchen automation startup called Mukunda Foods, among others. However Zomato’s Blinkit deal remains its most significant acquisition to date. 

As of 2022 July, Swiggy spent around $250 Mn on acquisition and investment deals. The foodtech behemoth has looked at inorganic growth and also bolstering its respective tech stacks and delivery capabilities in many such deals.