Swiggy enters unicorn club with $210 million funding at a $1.3 million valuation.

India’s food delivery race is hotting up after Swiggy, one of the startups vying for pole position. The food delivery startup has raised $210 million in its latest round of funding with Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's DST Global and existing backer Naspers leading a $210 million round in the firm. US-based hedge fund Coatue Management and existing investor Meituan Dianping also participated in this round. This is setting a stage for a battle between well-funded players in the sizzling online food ordering sector.

The funding values the four-year-old startup at well over $1.3 billion roughly, according to people familiar with the deal. That makes Swiggy, run by Bundl Technologies Pvt. Ltd, the second unicorn to emerge from the segment, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private details, after New Delhi-based Zomato (Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd).Swiggy, founded in August 2014, is one of the fastest entrants into the unicorn club. The latest fund-raising will add pressure on Zomato to raise additional funds quickly to keep pace with its Bengaluru-based rival in the online food-delivery business.

Swiggy, which has emerged as the breakout consumer internet start-up of the past five years, has easily been the most prolific food delivery start-up in terms of its ability to continue raising funds from deep-pocketed foreign investors. It has raised about $465 million till date, according to Mint research. Barely four months ago, Swiggy raised $100 million from South African media giant Naspers.
Swiggy, which operates in 15 cities including Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Kolkata, claims to have more than 35,000 restaurant partners on its platform and a delivery fleet of over 40,000.

Founded by Majety, Nandan Reddy and Rahul Jaimini, Swiggy is one of the few consumer internet start-ups from 2014 that is thriving and consistently chased by large global investors. Smaller peers such as food-ordering app TinyOwl, grocery-ordering app PepperTap and real estate platform Housing.com have either been shut down or sold in distress deals. Some others, such as online grocery start-up Grofers, are struggling to attract new investors and have been unable to find a sustainable long-term business model.