Shares of Swiggy ended debut day up 10.67% at ₹455.95 ($5.4) on Wednesday as the food-delivery and quick-commerce startup concluded India's second-largest IPO this year. The closely watched listing makes the company a direct comparable for what analysts have long considered the benchmark Indian internet stock: Zomato.
The listing of the 10-year-old Bengaluru-headquartered firm marks a milestone for India's startup ecosystem, where several firms are eyeing similarly large public offerings in the next 24 months. It's also a major liquidity event for Swiggy's backers, which include Prosus (its paper returns have already reached $2 billion), SoftBank and Accel. Some 5,000 employees stand to collectively reap about $1 billion.
In the run-up to the $1.4 billion IPO, Swiggy set its valuation at $11.3 billion , a notably conservative figure given that Zomato recent hit a market-cap high of $29 billion.
In an interview, Swiggy's co-founder and chief executive Sriharsha Majety said the firm wanted to make the offering exciting for new investors. The company's market cap jumped to $12.3 billion on Wednesday.
Swiggy's stellar debut on Wednesday defied the weak market in India this week, with benchmark Sensex and Nifty extending decline for the fourth consecutive days.
"One of the things I am most excited about is that Swiggy itself is happening at an incredible time," said Majety in a speech. "When we look at the next one to two decades, I think it's India's next two decades. There's so much economic growth in front of us. The Indian pride is at an all-time high."
Swiggy enters the public markets at a pivotal moment for India's e-commerce landscape. While the company has established itself as India's second-largest food delivery platform with 14 million monthly active users, it trails market leader Zomato across key metrics — its annualized gross order value of $3.3 billion in food delivery lags about 25% behind Zomato's, according to Macquarie.
The gap is bigger when it comes to the fast-growing and increasingly important quick-commerce sector – services promising deliveries of grocery, wellness, beauty products and more within 15 minutes. Swiggy's Instamart service has 5.2 million monthly users compared to Zomato-owned Blinkit's 7.6 million monthly users.
There's another more important metric that new public market investors will care about: while Blinkit has reached adjusted EBITDA break-even, while Instamart is still losing money even at the contribution margin level.
"We believe each of Swiggy’s business segments deserve to get lower target valuation multiple compared to that of Zomato’s due to poor execution in the past, which has led to widening of the market share gap," JMFinancial analysts said on Wednesday.
Still, the opportunity ahead is substantial. Morgan Stanley estimates gross order values in India's quick-commerce market could reach $42 billion by 2030, representing over 18% of the country's total e-commerce market. The sector has already grown at a blistering 77% annually since it took off during the pandemic.
JPMorgan reports that quick-commerce platforms have already captured 56% of the online grocery delivery market from traditional e-commerce players.
However, competitive pressures are intensifying. Traditional retail giants like Flipkart and Reliance's JioMart are launching their own rapid delivery services. Also, questions persist about the viability of the quick-commerce model outside major urban cities, given its reliance on dense networks of small warehouses.
