CCI approves Softbank’s $450 million investment in Swiggy
Premium- The commission approves the proposed acquisition of a certain stake in Bundl Technologies (Swiggy) by SVF II Songbird (SoftBank Group entity)
India’s market watchdog, Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved a $450 million investment from Japanese-conglomerate Softbank into Bundl Technologies, parent of food tech unicorn, Swiggy.
This is a part of the ongoing Series J round, which saw the likes of new investors including Falcon Edge Capital, Amansa Capital, Think Investments, Carmignac and Goldman Sachs, invest close to $800 million in the six-year-old startup, earlier in May this year.
On Monday, CCI wrote on microblogging website Twitter, that it has approved the investment.
“The Commission approves the proposed acquisition of a certain stake in Bundl Technologies (Swiggy) by SVF II Songbird (SoftBank Group entity)," read CCI’s tweet.
With this investment, Swiggy’s valuation stands at $5.5 billion, said a person who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Swiggy has been shoring funds to up its fight with IPO-bound Zomato, which is expected to raise ₹9000 crore (or approximately $1.2 billion) in primary funding during its public listing this month.
Mint had earlier reported that sovereign wealth funds including Singapore’s GIC Pvt. Ltd and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) are also expected to participate as a part of Swiggy’s current fundraise, which is expected to flow across multiple tranches.
Swiggy chief executive, Harsha Majety informed employees in an internal memo on Monday that the company has elevated long-time employee, Phani Kishan Addepalli, as its newest co-founder.
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“This is an ode to one such Swiggster – someone who’s been one of my biggest sources of energy in this journey. Nandan and I are really excited to share with you that Phani Kishan will now be elevated to a co-founder role at Swiggy. Phani joined us very early on in 2015 and has been my fixer and go-to-guy for many important problems for as long as I can remember. Over these 6 years, he’s probably had the record for setting up multiple high leverage functions from the ground up," wrote Majety in an internal memo.
Addepalli who started as general manager, currently serves as vice president of strategy and investments in Swiggy. He will now also be joining the management team at Swiggy and will be more closely involved in helping shape the company’s future, Majety added.
This comes just weeks after Swiggy’s chief operating officer, Vivek Sunder called it quits, and is currently serving his notice period until October-end.
Swiggy was founded by Nandan Reddy, Majety and Rahul Jaimini, back in 2015.
Last year in May, Swiggy’s co-founder and former-chief technology officer (CTO Jaimini resigned from the online delivery unicorn to join Pesto Tech, a career accelerator startup, as co-founder.
Jaimini continues to be a shareholder and board member of Swiggy.
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