Image used for representative purpose only.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Commenting on the Startup Policy Forum’s initiative, Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry said this ‘should reinforce India’s global leadership in the new-age economy.’ File photo
| Photo Credit: ANI

Startup Policy Forum (SPF), an alliance to advance India’s emerging sectors and a platform for collaboration between founders, policymakers and regulators, announced its formation on Thursday (December 5, 2024).

SPF has already brought together 30 startups including Razorpay, CRED, Pine Labs, Groww, OYO, Swiggy, Practo, Dream11, MPL, Cars24, CarDekho, Acko, Ixigo, Livspace and Jupiter. It would limit its members to 100 startups.

According to a statement from SPF, the forum will foster constructive collaboration between founders, policymakers and regulators, and it will also bolster the government’s initiatives to position Indian startups on a global platform.

Commenting on the initiative, Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry said in the statement that, ‘‘Our startups are driving transformative change by democratising business and converting job seekers into job creators. We are glad to see many founders joining the Startup Policy Forum (SPF), which should reinforce India’s global leadership in the new-age economy.’‘

SPF was founded by Shweta Rajpal Kohli, who worked across industries including venture capital, technology and media.

To drive sector-specific initiatives and policy expertise, SPF has established four specialised councils: the Fintech Policy Council (FPC), Consumer and Commerce Council (CACC), Emerging Tech & AI Council (ETAC), and New-Age Public Companies Council (NPCC), as per a press statement.

A Delhi man’s request for free onion with his food order on Swiggy went viral, compelling Swiggy Instamart to announce an hour-long flash sale on the vegetable in the national capital region.

It all started when the person placed an order on the food delivery app and asked the restaurant to send extra onions, saying its prices had skyrocketed.

On Reddit, the person’s flatmate shared a screenshot of his request in a post, which soon went viral on the platform.

“Bhaiyya please send round cut onions. Bhaiyya, please. Onions bahut costly hai (onions are very expensive), I can’t buy. Please send onions bhaiyya thoda,” the man pleaded to the restaurant.

My flatmate placed the order and I found this on the bill
byu/batmaneatspickles indelhi

“News waale aate hi honge (The reporters will be arriving shortly),” one user wrote in the comments section.

Another added, “But the real question is did he receive what he asked for?”

The viral post caught the attention of Swiggy co-founder Phani Kishan Addepalli, who shared the screenshot on X and announced a surprise flash sale on the platform.

Swiggy Instamart offered onion at Rs 39 for all users in Delhi-NCR from 7 AM to 8 PM.

“Came across this post about a Swiggy customer trying to save on the rising price of onions by asking the restaurant to send some extra onions. We feel your pain and though we can’t change the prices – just for you, we’re launching a flash sale today! Onions at Rs. 39 in Delhi NCR from 7-8pm. Stock up before we stock out,” he wrote on November 28.

Came across this post about a Swiggy customer trying to save on the rising price of onions by asking the restaurant to send some extra onions ????

We feel your pain ???? and though we can’t change the prices – just for you, we’re launching a flash sale today!

Onions at Rs. 39 in… pic.twitter.com/8v43LlEHRQ

— Phani Kishan A (@phanikishan) November 28, 2024

The prices of onions have surged in recent days, reaching Rs 70 to 80 per kg across the Delhi-NCR.

Besides the national capital, the onion prices have also increased in other cities.

New Delhi:

Swiggy’s much-anticipated stock market debut on Wednesday catapulted over 500 current and former employees to the “crorepati” club, with the food delivery and quick commerce major’s listing poised to unlock Rs 9,000 crore in ESOPs for 5,000 staffers, people aware of the details said.

Swiggy’s initial share sale had a price range of Rs 371-390 a share.

“The total Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) pool is worth Rs 9,000 crore, with 5,000 past as well as present employees holding them. At the upper price range of the initial share price (Rs 390), 500 employees out of the 5,000 are set to become crorepatis,” a person in the know shared the details requesting anonymity.

On Wednesday, shares of Swiggy were listed with a premium of nearly 8 per cent against the issue price of Rs 390 on NSE.

Shares of the firm made the market debut at Rs 420, a jump of 7.69 per cent on the bourse.

The stock on the BSE was listed at Rs 412, a jump of 5.64 per cent from the issue price. Later, it surged 7.67 per cent to Rs 419.95.

The company’s market valuation stood at Rs 89,549.08 crore during the early trade.

The Rs 11,327-crore initial public offer of Swiggy was fully subscribed on the final day of the share sale on Friday, ending with 3.59 times subscription.

The company’s IPO (Initial Public Offering) had a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 4,499 crore, along with an Offer-For-Sale (OFS) of Rs 6,828 crore.

Going by the draft papers, the company plans to utilise proceeds from the fresh issue for investing in technology and cloud infrastructure; brand marketing and business promotion; and debt payment; and funds will also be allocated for inorganic growth and general corporate purposes.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Facing a CCI probe for anti-competitive practices, online food delivery platform Zomato has asserted it complies with the country’s laws while rival Swiggy said it is committed to complying with local regulations.

Both companies termed news reports on the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) investigation “misleading”, maintaining that the CCI is yet to pass its final order on the matter of unfair business practices, including alleged preferential treatment to some restaurant partners by Zomato and Swiggy.

In a regulatory filing, Zomato said the CCI had issued a “prima facie” order on April 4, 2022, which directed the Office of the Director General of the Commission to investigate potential violations under the Competition Act, 2002.

Since the intimation of April 5, 2022, the commission, on merits, has not passed any order, the company said.

“Accordingly, the aforementioned news article is misleading. We will continue to work closely with the Commission to explain why all our practices are in compliance with the Competition Act and that they do not have any adverse effect on competition in India,” Zomato stated in the filing.

In a statement, Swiggy said media reports of the CCI’s investigation into Swiggy confuse the investigative process with the final outcome and are misleading.

“Based on the order of the CCI dated April 5, 2022, the Director General investigated certain aspects of the conduct of our business and its inquiry and report of March 2024 is a preliminary step in an ongoing investigation by the CCI, and not a final decision as some reports suggest,” Swiggy said.

The company further stated it is yet to receive the confidential details of the findings from the CCI for filing a response to the DG’s finding.

“Once Swiggy submits its response and CCI conducts a hearing on the matter, CCI will pass its decision on whether any competition law violations have occurred. Currently it’s at a preliminary stage and no final decision or order has been issued regarding Swiggy’s practices since 2022,” the company said.

Swiggy maintained that it is “fully cooperating with the investigation and is committed to complying with the extant laws of the country”.

However, a CCI probe has found that the two food delivery platforms indulged in unfair business practices, including alleged preferential treatment to some restaurant partners, according to sources.

The detailed investigation was ordered by the CCI in April 2022 and the probe report was submitted to the regulator earlier this year. Under the norms, CCI Director General’s report has been shared with the parties concerned and later, they will be called for hearings by the watchdog.

After gathering all the views and explanations, the regulator will pass the final order. The decision to probe the two entities had come on a complaint filed by the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI).

Last month, Swiggy mentioned about the CCI case in the Red Herring Prospectus for its Initial Public Offering. The IPO closed on Friday. While ordering the investigation in April 2022, CCI had said that “prima facie there exists a conflict of interest situation, warranting a detailed scrutiny into its impact on the overall competition between the RPs vis-a-vis the private brands/entities which the platforms may be incentivised to favour”.

As per the April 2022 order, preferential treatment accorded to the Restaurant Partners (RPs) in which these platforms have an equity or revenue interest can create barriers for the existing RPs to compete on fair terms.

Among others, the watchdog had said that price parity clauses mentioned in the agreements of Zomato and Swiggy appear to indicate wide restrictions where the RPs are not allowed to maintain lower prices or higher discounts on any of their own supply channel or on any other aggregator, so that the minimum price or maximum discounts can be maintained by the platform. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

An investigation by India’s antitrust body found food delivery giants Zomato and SoftBank-backed Swiggy breached competition laws, with their business practices favouring restaurant chains listed on their platforms, documents show.

Zomato entered into “exclusivity contracts” with partners in return for lower commissions, while Swiggy guaranteed business growth to certain players if they listed exclusively on its platform, according to non-public documents prepared by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

Exclusivity arrangements between Swiggy, Zomato and their respective restaurant partners “prevent the market from becoming more competitive,” the CCI’s investigation arm noted in its findings reviewed by Reuters on Friday.

The CCI documents are not public, in line with its confidentiality rules, and were shared with Swiggy, Zomato and the complainant restaurant groups in March 2024. Their findings have not been previously reported.

Zomato declined to comment, while Swiggy and the CCI did not respond to Reuters queries.

The antitrust investigation against Swiggy and its top rival Zomato began in 2022 after a complaint by National Restaurant Association of India about the impact on food outlets due to anti-competitive practices of the platforms.

Food delivery giants Swiggy and Zomato have in recent years reshaped how Indians order food, as hundreds of thousands of outlets listed on their apps just when smartphone use, and online ordering, both grew rapidly.

Swiggy, which on Friday is closing bids for its $1.4 billion IPO – India’s second biggest this year, and Zomato both in recent years also pushed restaurants to maintain a parity on prices, directly reducing competition in the market.

That practice affects restaurants as they cannot offer lower prices on other online platforms, the CCI documents stated.

The next, and final phase, of the CCI case is a decision by the CCI leadership which is still reviewing the investigation findings to decide on any penalty or order changes to Swiggy’s and Zomato’s business practices.

A final decision could take several weeks, and the companies still have the option of contesting the investigation findings with the CCI.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

Online food delivery platform Swiggy saw a muted response to its Rs 11,327 crore IPO on the first day of bidding on Wednesday, as brokerages advised investors to avoid the IPO until the company’s financial performance and growth outlook improve.

The IPO received bids for about 1.8 crore shares against around 16 crore shares on offer, according to the NSE data.

Till about 4 pm, Swiggy received a total of 1,78,10,182 bids as against 16,01,09,703 shares (a mere 0.11 times), as per the NSE data.

The non-institutional investors (NIIs) subscribed for 0.05 times the quota available for them, while retail individual investors (RIIs) applied for 0.52 times the total shares offered to them.

The issue will close for bids on November 8.

The Zomato rival has fixed the price band between Rs 371 and Rs 390. Swiggy shares will be listed on the exchanges on November 13, while the allotment of shares will take place on November 11.

According to a Choice Broking IPO note, the company has experienced net losses annually since its incorporation and depends on numerous third-party providers for various operational aspects, including payment gateways and supply chain management. Another IPO note by Geojit said that “on the profitability side, Swiggy has witnessed setbacks and has recorded negative cash flow from operations since inception”.

Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd recommended only “High-Risk investors to ‘Subscribe for long term'”.

Over the past three fiscal years, the company has consistently reported losses on a consolidated basis. In FY22, the total income was Rs. 6,119.78 crore, with a net loss of Rs 3,628.90 crore. The following year, FY23, saw an increase in total income to Rs 8714.45 crore, but the net loss also increased to Rs 4,179.31 crore. In FY24, the total income rose further to Rs 11,634.35 crore, while the net loss was reduced to Rs 2,350.24 crore. In the first quarter of FY25, ending on June 30, 2024, the company recorded a total income of Rs 3,310.11 crore and a net loss of Rs 611.01 crore.

“These figures indicate that the company has been experiencing continuous financial losses over the reported periods,” said Bajaj Broking in its note.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Swiggy has in recent weeks cut its internal valuation goal twice by a combined 25% due to volatility in the Indian stock markets. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Food delivery giant Swiggy will likely price its $1.35 billion domestic initial public offering, which opens next week, at ₹371-390 per share, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The IPO will open for subscription from Nov. 6 to Nov. 8, the company’s red herring prospectus dated Monday (October 28, 2024) showed. Anchor investors will bid for shares on Nov. 5.

Swiggy is expected to list its shares on November 13.

The share sale will be the country’s second-biggest stock offering this year, behind Hyundai Motor India’s $3.3 billion IPO earlier this month, which had seen subdued interest from retail investors.

The food and grocery delivery firm, which competes with listed rival Zomato, will sell new shares worth ₹44.99 billion, more than the ₹37.5 billion originally planned.

Existing shareholders including Prosus and Tencent are selling a total of 175.1 million shares.

Swiggy has in recent weeks cut its internal valuation goal twice by a combined 25% due to volatility in the Indian stock markets. It was initially looking at a valuation of as much as $15 billion, but following those cuts, it is now targeting $11.3 billion.

Swiggy did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Benchmark Nifty 50 index is now down more than 8% from record highs hit on Sept. 27 due to persistent foreign selling.

Despite recent jitters, India’s IPO market has been buoyant, with around 270 companies raising $12.57 billion so far this year, well above the $7.4 billion raised in all of 2023, LSEG data showed.

The primary market will remain abuzz with more than half a dozen companies, including Hyundai Motor India, Swiggy, and NTPC Green Energy, lined up initial public offerings over the next two months to raise around ₹60,000 crore, merchant bankers said.

Apart from these three firms, Afcons Infrastructure, Waaree Energies, Niva Bupa Health Insurance, One Mobikwik Systems, and Garuda Construction are among the companies planning to launch initial public offerings (IPOs) during October-November, they added.

Together, these firms are looking to raise ₹60,000 crore through their IPOs.

Munish Aggarwal, Managing Director and Head – Equity Capital Markets at Equirus, expects over 30 IPOs to be launched between September-end and December. This will be across sectors, deal sizes and a combination of fresh issues and offers for sale.

The strong momentum in IPO markets is driven by several key macroeconomic, sector-specific factors and the willingness of funds to look at new ideas, which is partially led by strong inflows into domestic mutual funds and the robust capital formation happening across corporate India, he added.

The companies are tapping the primary market to raise funds for expansion plans, retire debt, support working capital requirements and provide exit routes to the existing shareholders.

Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Company, is expected to raise ₹25,000 crore, making it the largest-ever IPO in India.

This could surpass LIC’s ₹21,000-crore initial share sale.

The automaker’s entire issue will be an offer-for-sale (OFS) of 14,21,94,700 shares by Hyundai Motor Company, with no fresh issue component, according to its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP).

Other major IPOs lined up include food and grocery delivery giant Swiggy, which according to sources, is targeting to raise ₹10,414 crore via fresh issue and OFS.

Swiggy’s IPO consists of a fresh issue of shares worth ₹3,750 crore and an OFS component of 18.52 crore worth ₹6,664 crore.

Further, NTPC Green Energy, the renewable energy arm of state-owned NTPC, is looking to launch its ₹10,000 crore IPO in the first week of November, sources told PTI earlier.

Shapoorji Pallonji Group’s construction firm Afcons Infrastructure will also join the IPO rush with a ₹7,000 crore offer while Waaree Energies is expected to raise ₹3,000 crore through a fresh issue of shares, in addition to an OFS component.

Niva Bupa Health Insurance and One Mobikwik Systems are planning to raise ₹3,000 crore and ₹700 crore, respectively.

Moreover, 62 companies, including Bajaj Housing Finance, Ola Electric Mobility, and FirstCry’s parent Brainbees Solutions have already mobilised around ₹64,000 crore collectively via mainboard, marking a 29% increase from ₹49,436 crore collected by 57 firms through the route in 2023.

The primary market is experiencing strong interest from issuers and investors across various sectors.

Going ahead, the outlook for the IPO market in 2025 remains broadly positive as Sebi approved 22 IPOs as of now with companies planning to raise around ₹25,000 crore, V Prashant Rao Director & Head – ECM, Investment Banking at Anand Rathi Advisors, said.

Additionally, over 50 firms have filed draft papers and are awaiting approval.

Cumulatively, these companies aim to raise more than 1 lakh crore, reflecting the significant momentum in the IPO market, he added.

The positive sentiment is supported by strong macroeconomic fundamentals, favourable market conditions, and sectoral growth.

Further, there are no signs of the IPO frenzy fizzling out and this behaviour might persist in the short term. However, risks like market corrections and regulatory interventions could moderate the enthusiasm, Vaibhav Porwal, Co-founder, Dezrev, said.

New Delhi:

Food delivery and quick commerce giant Swiggy has filed for a Rs 3,750-crore Initial Public Offering (IPO) in what is likely to be among India’s biggest listings this year.

On Wednesday, it came to light that Swiggy had received clearance for the IPO from markets regulator SEBI and the company said on Thursday that it aims to raise Rs 3,750 crore through a long-awaited public offering.

In its updated draft red herring prospectus, the Bengaluru-based company has said existing shareholders, including Tencent Europe and Accel India, will sell approximately 18.5 crore shares as part of an offer of sale (OFS). With the OFS, the IPO size will reportedly be over Rs 10,000 crore.

Founded in 2014, Swiggy, which is backed by Japan’s Softbank and investment group Prosus, had a valuation of nearly $ 13 billion in April this year and has over 4,700 employees.

According to news agency Reuters, Swiggy’s listing comes amid a booming IPO market, with 198 companies having raised $7.1 billion in the year up to September 4, which is more than double the amount in the same period last year.

Rs 137.41 crore of the proceeds from the fresh issue will be used for debt payment of subsidiary Scootsy, news agency PTI reported, citing the IPO papers. Rs 982.4 crore will also be invested in Scootsy to expand the dark store network in the quick commerce segment, with Rs 559.1 crore allocated for setting up dark stores and the remaining for lease or license payments.

The company will also invest Rs 586.2 crore in technology and cloud infrastructure, Rs 929.5 crore in brand marketing and business promotion, and some funds will also be allocated for inorganic growth and general corporate purposes.

Swiggy’s main competitor, Zomato, had gone public in 2021 and its shares have been among the top performers in the past 12-15 months.