US asset manager Invesco has raised its investment in Swiggy and attributed an implied valuation of about $13.3 billion to Indian food delivery and quick-commerce startup Swiggy as it looks to file for a public offering in about a month, a source told Reuters on Friday.
On Tuesday, Invesco’s Developing Markets Fund said it had valued its 28,844 shares in Swiggy at $237.24 million as of the end of July 2024. All in all, the asset manager picked up shares in Swiggy for $190.47 million.
In early 2022, Invesco took a jump and spearheaded a fresh $700 million investment round in the Bengaluru-based startup Swiggy, which values the company at $10.7 billion. 
Invesco has become conservative in its assessment of the valuation of its investments in Swiggy. In July 2023, after a market downturn, Invesco cut the valuation down to $5.5 billion—considerably down from an estimated $12.3 billion at the end of April this year.
Companies generally use various methods to arrive at the valuation of private-held companies. Normally, the market performance of a publicly traded competitor becomes a benchmark for these firms. In fact, Zomato is the nearest competitor to Swiggy, and its market capitalisation has fluctuated in a range from $22 billion to $30 billion over the last few months.
Baron, an investor in Swiggy, owns a smaller stake in the food delivery startup than Invesco and had valued the Indian company at $15.1 billion as of the end of March this year, it estimates.
Baron wrote in a June letter that Swiggy is “uniquely positioned to capitalise on the structural growth of online food delivery” in India. Food delivery in India will grow significantly over the coming years. Driven by an expanding middle class, increasing disposable incomes, wider usage of smartphones, and shifting consumer tastes driven by a demography of tech-savvy young consumers, this growth is set to take place. The market has consolidated into a duopoly, wherein Swiggy is at the top and Zomato closely follows, which is great for the profitability and growth prospects of the company in the future.
The valuation increase has come at a time when many investors have shaved off the value of their investments in several Indian and international startups. Recently, Invesco cut the value of its investment in the merchant payments startup Pine Labs, which implied a valuation of $3.3 billion for the company from its peak of $5.5 billion.
In a June update to its investors, the wealth and asset manager 360 One said it has valued VerSe, the Indian startup behind the popular news aggregator Dailyhunt, at $2.9 billion. That represents a haircut from the $5 billion valuation at which VerSe raised its last private funding round in April last year.
According to previous reports by Eltrys, 360 One had given a valuation of around $900 million to online meat and seafood retailer Licious, while the edtech company UpGrad was valued at $1.9 billion.
Swiggy is looking to raise as much as $1.4 billion via its IPO, valuing the firm between $13 billion and $15 billion.
