Swiggy Hires Flipkart Veteran In Instamart Revenue Push

Continuing its efforts to strengthen its leadership team and bolster growth, Swiggy has hired former Flipkart executive Kanika Tiwari as the head of monetisation for its quick commerce business Instamart.

Tiwari took to LinkedIn to make the announcement. “I’m excited to share that I’ve joined Swiggy – Instamart as Head of Monetization. I want to thank Flipkart for the opportunities and experiences gained during my tenure. I am grateful to all the leaders I got to work with, who helped me become the professional I am today…” she said in a post.

Tiwari worked with Flipkart for almost eight years. She started as a management trainee in 2016 and rose through the ranks over the years. Her last role at the ecommerce giant was as director of strategy and growth of Flipkart Ads.

Before Flipkart, Tiwari worked as a business development manager at a logistics company Rivigo. 

The appointment comes at a time when the competition in the quick commerce space is intensifying. While Swiggy aims to use part of its IPO proceeds for Instamart, Zomato is raising INR 8,500 Cr via qualified institutional placement. The Deepinder Goyal-led company is likely to use a part of this proceeds to strengthen the network of its quick commerce arm Blinkit. The other major player in the space, Zepto, has raised a funding of over $1.3 Bn across three funding rounds in 2024.

The development also comes at a time when the recently listed Swiggy has been on a hiring spree for key roles. Earlier this month, it appointed former Lenskart executive Supriya Shankar as vice president of events and experience vertical. 

Prior to that, Swiggy appointed Shalabh Shrivastava as senior vice president of the driver organisation and Hari Kumar G as senior vice president and chief business officer for Swiggy Instamart. 

Swiggy made its public markets debut on November 13. Its shares listed on the NSE at a premium of 8% to the issue price and a premium of 6% on the BSE.

The total size of its IPO was INR 11,324 Cr, of which fresh issue was INR 4,999 Cr and offer for sale (OFS) of 17.5 Cr shares. 

Tencent, Alpha Wave, Goldman Sachs Asia, Norwest Venture Partners, Times Internet, among others, divested their stakes under the OFS. Swiggy founders Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy and Rahul Jaimini also made substantial gains from the IPO. 

On the financial front, Swiggy trimmed its loss by 44% to INR 2,350 Cr in the financial year ended March 31, 2024 from INR 4,179.3 Cr in FY23. Operating revenue rose 36% to INR 11,247.3 Cr in FY24 from INR 8,264.5 Cr on the back of the growth of Swiggy Instamart.

Shares of Swiggy ended Monday’s (November 25) trading session 3.6% higher at INR 431.25 on the BSE.