Swiggy pushes growth pedal, moves into Zomato territory with Dineout

In July last year, foodtech major Zomato made quite an impression on Dalal Street with its stellar listing and valuation of $14 billion. Its biggest competitor, privately held Swiggy, was worth $5.5 billion then. But the tables have turned in this great rivalry for industry dominance and perception.

Swiggy is currently valued at $10.5 billion, whereas Zomato’s stock has endured a correction of over 30% (vs Nifty flat) since its debut, pushing down the valuation to $8.4 billion. Global food-delivery companies’ shares have also tumbled: DoorDash -53%, Delivery Hero -63%, Just Eat -40%, Meituan -7%.

This is just the opening that Swiggy, unaffected by fluctuations in the public markets, had been waiting for. It is set to challenge Zomato more aggressively on the business front, having raised $700 million in a round led by US-based asset manager Invesco in January.

The plans revolve around a marketing splurge to promote its quick-grocery business, Instamart, and the acquisition of table booking app Dineout. The latter helps Swiggy match Zomato’s dining-out, ratings and table reservation offerings, which were a key differentiator between the two until now.

The next three weeks will be crucial for Swiggy to establish its lead across businesses. Industry watchers expect this phase of the competition to be more heated than the previous bouts.

“Swiggy will be aggressive. If Zomato matches the intensity, it will miss earnings, and if it doesn’t, it will lose market share,” said a person tracking the space.