Tag: swiggy

Google tops positive buzz-creation list in 2018: Report

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Online search engine giant Google has emerged as the top brand that has generated strong positive buzz in 2018 in the country, followed by the rival
Facebook-owned WhatsApp and the Google-owned YouTube, according to a report.

“Google, with a buzz score of 57.2 tops the charts, followed by Whatsapp and YouTube, with 55.7 and 52.9 points, respectively in the 2018,” England-based online market research and data analytics firm YouGov said.

YouGov’s brand index measures public perception of brands on a daily basis across a range of metrics and the annual buzz rankings are compiled using buzz scores from the data for the full year, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Buzz scores measure whether people have heard anything positive or negative about a brand in the previous two weeks.

“We see a surge in the popularity of digital brands and social networks. While the top three is dominated by technology giants, social networks like Facebook and Instagram park themselves at nine and ten, respectively,” it said.

Ticketing portal MakeMyTrip is at the fourth place, followed by Amazon at number five. Cab hailing services like Uber and Ola which were in news for a large part of the year mostly for wrong reasons, come at seventh and eighth slots, respectively.

Food-delivery platform Swiggy, amidst talks of fresh investments and geographical expansion, has created a lot of buzz and is at the sixth spot in the top 10 list.

It also reveals the brands that have noted the greatest improvement to consumer perception in 2018.

Zomato is the most improved brand of the past year, with a buzz score of 21.3. Instagram, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Pinterest and Axis Bank are the other top improvers.

The report notes that financial brands have recorded good improvement to their buzz score in the past year. The winning brands have managed to stay relevant and have been successful in generating positive buzz amongst their
consumers,” the report said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Year of unicorns: 8 Indian startups crossed $1 billion in valuation in 2018

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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2018 was a year of unicorns. India added eight unicorns to its kitty, the highest in a single calendar year. Swiggy, OYO, Paytm Mall, Udaan, Policy Bazaar, Zomato, Freshworks and Byju’s were the eight startups that crossed $1 billion in valuation.

In the most recent example, Swiggy executed definitive agreements for a $1 billion funding round led by Naspers and saw new investors — Tencent, Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management Company coming on board.

The unicorns are also aiming at expanding footprints in the global market. OYO is currently in over 350 cities with over 12,000 asset partners spread across six countries including India, China, Malaysia, Nepal, the UK and UAE in the Middle East.

The company raised $800 million in its latest funding round led by SoftBank Investment Advisers (SBIA) along with the participation from existing investors – Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia and Greenoaks Capital. The fundraising, the company said, is aimed to “strengthen its market position in its home markets – India and China – and support its international expansion plans”.

Here’s a quick look at how these companies fared in 2018:

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Rise of unicorns in Indian start-ups across verticals

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India witnessed a dramatic rise of eight unicorns in 2018 from among the start-ups across verticals as against a mere nine in six years from 2011 till 2017, according to IT industry apex body Nasscom.

The start-ups joining the select club for their valuation over $1 billion (Rs 7,000 crore or more) are Oyo Rooms (hospitality), Zomato and Swiggy (food delivery), Udaan (retailer marketplace), Byju’s, (edu-tech), Paytm Mall (e-tail), Freshworks (software programmer) and Policybazaar (digital insurance).

“As the start-ups that became unicorns this year are based on subscription and Software as a Service (SaaS) models, they took a few years to mature,” Nasscom Vice President (Industry Initiatives) K.S. Viswanathan told IANS.

The focus of these start-ups to acquire customers globally made them unicorns from India, he asserted.

According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies’ (Nasscom) October report on “Indian Start-up Ecosystem: Approaching Escape Velocity”, about 1,200 start-ups were added till September.

“The Indian ecosystem is adding about 1,300 start-ups every year but also seeing the demise of at least 300 of them from previous years,” Viswanathan admitted, assessing their survival rate at three to five years.

With the addition of the start-ups, about 40,000 jobs were created during the year, taking their total in the ecosystem of 7,200-7,500 firms to 1.6-1.7 lakh.

The world’s largest retail giant, Walmart, in May bought 77 per cent equity stake in the country’s earliest e-tailer unicorn, Flipkart, for a whopping $16 billion in one of the largest e-commerce deals globally.

“The Flipkart acquisition by Walmart was a shot in the arm for the country’s start-up sector,” Viswanathan said.

The investment in the native start-ups rose by a phenomenal 108 per cent annually to $4.2 billion in nine months (January-September) from $2 billion in the same period of 2017, the Nasscom report said.

By year-end, Swiggy and Byju’s raised hefty venture funds of $1 billion and $540 million (Rs 3,866-crore), respectively, indicating that global institutional and angel investors are betting on Indian unicorns.

According to the New York-based market intelligence platform CB Insights, about 60 per cent of the funds raised by Indian start-ups were invested in unicorns.

Adoption of disruptive technologies across verticals spanning education, food, health, hospitality and transportation has been driving growth of Indian start-ups.

For instance, the four-year-old Swiggy, which has raised $1.26 billion so far, has been investing in its digital platform and delivery fleet.

“One of the reasons for our success is our industry-changing innovations and focus on delivering the best consumer experience. Our delivery-only kitchens have also enabled our entry into 42 cities across the country in last six months,” a Swiggy spokesperson told IANS.

During the year, Oyo and Ola also began expanding aggressively in the international markets.

Gurugram-based Oyo said it invested on its technological prowess, sustaining demand generation across online and offline channels and identification and upgradation of properties within a short time to spur growth.

The company raised $1 billion from SoftBank and other investors to become a unicorn.

“We saw many firsts and celebrated key milestones this year. We entered three international markets — the UAE, Britain and Indonesia,” Oyo founder and chief executive Ritesh Agarwal told IANS.

Competing against the American ride-hailing firm Uber, city-based Ola forayed into international markets starting in Australia and entered Britain and New Zealand.

Food delivery and restaurant search platform Zomato, which raised over $600 million since its founding in 2008 in Gurugram in Haryana, entered the unicorn club this year, according to Nasscom data.

Zomato has been expanding overseas since 2012 and operates in 24 countries, including Australia, Britain, Canada and the US.

The start-up ecosystem and its enablers, including stakeholders and policy regulations, play a key role in the growth of any firm, said Zomato’s global head of classifieds business Oytun Calapover.

“Zomato is a great example of a homegrown start-up, which has been able to build equity not just in the home country, but overseas as well. This has been made possible by factors like government regulations and stakeholders,” Calapover told IANS.

The central government’s policies like Start-up India, Digital India and 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in e-commerce have helped the country become a “land of unicorns”, Calapover added.

Though the start-ups had a satisfactory year, the number of women leading some of them remained low. Of the total start-up founders, 11 per cent were women in 2017-18, up a mere three percentage points from eight per cent in 2016-17, according to Nasscom.

There is a need to advocate more women in start-ups for the government support, particularly at the seed-funding stage (early investments until they can generate revenue) and improving the ease of doing business to propel their growth, the industry body added in its report.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

2018 in Retrospect: Rise of unicorns in Indian start-ups across verticals

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

India witnessed a dramatic rise of eight unicorns in 2018 from among the start-ups across verticals as against a mere nine in six years from 2011 till 2017, according to IT industry apex body Nasscom.

The start-ups joining the select club for their valuation over $1 billion (Rs 7,000 crore or more) are Oyo Rooms (hospitality), Zomato and Swiggy (food delivery), Udaan (retailer marketplace), Byju’s, (edu-tech), Paytm Mall (e-tail), Freshworks (software programmer) and Policybazaar (digital insurance).

“As the start-ups that became unicorns this year are based on subscription and Software as a Service (SaaS) models, they took a few years to mature,” Nasscom Vice President (Industry Initiatives) K.S. Viswanathan told IANS.

The focus of these start-ups to acquire customers globally made them unicorns from India, he asserted.

According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies’ (Nasscom) October report on “Indian Start-up Ecosystem: Approaching Escape Velocity”, about 1,200 start-ups were added till September.

“The Indian ecosystem is adding about 1,300 start-ups every year but also seeing the demise of at least 300 of them from previous years,” Viswanathan admitted, assessing their survival rate at three to five years.

With the addition of the start-ups, about 40,000 jobs were created during the year, taking their total in the ecosystem of 7,200-7,500 firms to 1.6-1.7 lakh.

The world’s largest retail giant, Walmart, in May bought 77 per cent equity stake in the country’s earliest e-tailer unicorn, Flipkart, for a whopping $16 billion in one of the largest e-commerce deals globally.

“The Flipkart acquisition by Walmart was a shot in the arm for the country’s start-up sector,” Viswanathan said.

The investment in the native start-ups rose by a phenomenal 108 per cent annually to $4.2 billion in nine months (January-September) from $2 billion in the same period of 2017, the Nasscom report said.

By year-end, Swiggy and Byju’s raised hefty venture funds of $1 billion and $540 million (Rs 3,866-crore), respectively, indicating that global institutional and angel investors are betting on Indian unicorns.

According to the New York-based market intelligence platform CB Insights, about 60 per cent of the funds raised by Indian start-ups were invested in unicorns.

Adoption of disruptive technologies across verticals spanning education, food, health, hospitality and transportation has been driving growth of Indian start-ups.

For instance, the four-year-old Swiggy, which has raised $1.26 billion so far, has been investing in its digital platform and delivery fleet.

“One of the reasons for our success is our industry-changing innovations and focus on delivering the best consumer experience. Our delivery-only kitchens have also enabled our entry into 42 cities across the country in last six months,” a Swiggy spokesperson told IANS.

During the year, Oyo and Ola also began expanding aggressively in the international markets.

Gurugram-based Oyo said it invested on its technological prowess, sustaining demand generation across online and offline channels and identification and upgradation of properties within a short time to spur growth.

The company raised $1 billion from SoftBank and other investors to become a unicorn.

“We saw many firsts and celebrated key milestones this year. We entered three international markets — the UAE, Britain and Indonesia,” Oyo founder and chief executive Ritesh Agarwal told IANS.

Competing against the American ride-hailing firm Uber, city-based Ola forayed into international markets starting in Australia and entered Britain and New Zealand.

Food delivery and restaurant search platform Zomato, which raised over $600 million since its founding in 2008 in Gurugram in Haryana, entered the unicorn club this year, according to Nasscom data.

Zomato has been expanding overseas since 2012 and operates in 24 countries, including Australia, Britain, Canada and the US.

The start-up ecosystem and its enablers, including stakeholders and policy regulations, play a key role in the growth of any firm, said Zomato’s global head of classifieds business Oytun Calapover.

“Zomato is a great example of a homegrown start-up, which has been able to build equity not just in the home country, but overseas as well. This has been made possible by factors like government regulations and stakeholders,” Calapover told IANS.

The central government’s policies like Start-up India, Digital India and 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in e-commerce have helped the country become a “land of unicorns”, Calapover added.

Though the start-ups had a satisfactory year, the number of women leading some of them remained low. Of the total start-up founders, 11 per cent were women in 2017-18, up a mere three percentage points from eight per cent in 2016-17, according to Nasscom.

There is a need to advocate more women in start-ups for the government support, particularly at the seed-funding stage (early investments until they can generate revenue) and improving the ease of doing business to propel their growth, the industry body added in its report.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Swiggy raises $1 billion funding led by Naspers

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Swiggy on Thursday said it has closed a $1 billion funding round, led by existing investor Nasper, a move that will give the food delivery platform more muscle to compete against players like Zomato and FoodPanda.

Swiggy, in a statement said, it has executed definitive agreements for a $1 billion round of funding led by Naspers and saw new investors — Tencent, Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management Company coming on board.

The series H round also saw participation from other existing investors including DST Global, Meituan Dianping and Coatue Management, it added.

Swiggy said the latest fund-raising round is the “single largest in India’s food technology sector to date” and takes the total funding raised by the Bengaluru-based company to $1.26 billion.

The fresh capital infusion will provide more ammunition to Swiggy as it battles Ant Financial-backed Zomato, Ola-owned Foodpanda and UberEats in the growing food delivery space in the country.

“As India’s appetite for online food ordering grows, Swiggy will use the funds to bring more quality food brands closer to consumers and address gaps in supply through delivery-only kitchens under the ‘Access’ initiative for restaurant partners,” Swiggy said in a statement.

It added that the fresh capital will also be used to hire talent, especially for machine learning and engineering roles across mid and senior levels.
Swiggy is focussed on further strengthening its technology backbone and focus on building a next-generation AI-driven platform for hyperlocal discovery and on-demand delivery, it said.

“As we add more firepower to our vision of elevating quality of life for urban consumers by offering unparalleled convenience, we are pleased that visionary global investors share our purpose and have made such a significant investment in our future,” Swiggy CEO Sriharsha Majety said.

In June this year, Swiggy had raised $210 million in funding led by Naspers and DST Global. Since then, the company has expanded to 42 additional cities and doubled its gross merchandise value. It has close to 1.2 lakh active delivery partners on its platform.

Founded in 2014, Swiggy has over 50,000 restaurant partners spread across more than 50 cities.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Swiggy, Zomato, others remove 10,500 restaurants for violating food safety law

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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As many as 10,500 restaurants have been de-listed by ecommerce firms such as Zomato and Swiggy for not having license or registration under the food safety law, Parliament was told on Friday.

Minister of state for health Ashwini Kumar Choubey said the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in July directed food ecommerce firms to de-list the restaurants which don’t have registration under the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006.

“The Food delivery aggregators informed that they have already initiated action against the defaulting partner hotels/restaurants.

“As per information received, Zomato has delisted 2,500, Swiggy 4,000, Foodpanda 1,800, UberEats 2,000 and foodcloud 200 unlicensed/unregistered FBOs (Food Business Operators),” he said in reply to a question.

The implementation and enforcement of Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006 Rules and Regulations made thereunder, primarily rests with state and UT governments, he said.

Commissioner of Food Safety of all states and UTs have been requested to take necessary action to bring all such FBOs or food business operators under the ambit of FSS Act through registration.

No one shall commence or carry on any food business without license or registration under the Act, he said.

Choubey stated further regular surveillance, monitoring, inspection and random sampling of food products are carried out by officials to check compliance of the standards and norms.

In case, where the food samples are found to be non- conforming, penal action has been initiated, he stated.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Swiggy may soon deliver groceries, medicines and flowers to your doorstep

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Online food ordering and delivery start-up Swiggy is set to launch its local commerce services on December 15, Business Standard reported.

The Bengaluru-based company will tie up with supermarket chains, pharmacies, meat shops, pet stores, flower vendors and others and will ask them to give 2-3 percent incentives to the company on increased sales, the report said citing three people with knowledge of the firm’s activities.

The report added that the company will also charge a delivery charge fee on every order.

In the beginning, Swiggy is planning to attract customers by giving cash back offers and discounts, which will be phased out eventually.

The company will unveil its concierge service, which is internally called Dash and the name is bound to change once the service is announced, the report said.

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Swiggy to engage 2,000 women for food delivery

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Leading food ordering and delivery start-up Swiggy on Tuesday said it would engage about 2,000 women as delivery personnel by March 2019.

“About 2,000 women will join our delivery team by March next year. Over the last few months, we have been working on training women for opportunities in this growing food delivery sector,” the city-based online food delivery platform said in a statement here.

By deploying more women as delivery personnel across the country, the company said it aimed to create an inclusive workforce.

The company engages around a lakh personnel daily to deliver food across 45 Indian cities it operates in.

Currently, about 60 women are tied up with Swiggy across 10 cities, including Ahmedabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur and Pune, to deliver food.

World over, the employment of women as delivery personnel has been meagre.

“We are creating a women-friendly work environment with a dedicated helpline for any concern, as well as appointing more women in managerial roles,” the company said.

Swiggy is identifying ‘safe zones’ for women delivery personnel to operate in and will allow them to complete their deliveries by 6 p.m., it added.

“Since inception, we have seen the potential in investing in logistical prowess, which has helped us in having end-to-end control over the food delivery experience,” Swiggy Vice President (Operations) Sachin Kotangale said in the statement.

Set up in 2014, the food delivery platform claims to receive about 20 million orders a month across 45,000 restaurants in 45 cities, including New Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Gurugram and Pune.

It raised $210 million (around Rs 1,500 crore) from multiple investment firms, and has so far raised over $460 million (around Rs 3,350 crore).

The company, which has over 4,000 employees, reported an operating revenue of Rs 442-crore for the fiscal 2017-18.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow