Swiggy

By Abinaya V and Praveen Paramasivam

Aug 20 (Reuters) - Shareholder approval for Swiggy's foreign ownership cap will let its quick-commerce unit Instamart switch to a potentially more profitable inventory model as the Indian delivery platform plays catch-up with market leader Blinkit in a highly competitive sector.

Instamart has operated under a marketplace model since launching in August 2020, earning commissions on products sold in India's $11.5 billion quick-commerce market. The approval gives Prosus-backed Swiggy SWIG.NS the status of an Indian-owned and controlled company (IOCC), required under the country's foreign investment rules to hold inventory.

"The first benefit is bulk-buying advantage. Second, they can share data analytics with their brand partners and third, wastage will be less," Anand Rathi analyst Shobit Singhal said.

MARGIN IMPROVEMENT

An inventory-led model could improve Instamart's margins, particularly in higher-value categories, while giving it greater control over pricing, assortment and supply chains, analysts said.

Swiggy has said the transition could add about 80 basis points to Instamart's contribution margin, which measures revenue after variable costs. "That's about 4-5 rupees an order — about a sixth of the 30 rupees an order it needs to break even," said Samarth Patel, associate vice president, Equirus Securities.

Instamart's first-quarter contribution margin was negative 0.2%, against negative 1.8% in the previous quarter.

Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit, which moved to an inventory-led model last year, has logged overall margin improvement for five straight quarters, turning positive in the March 2026 quarter.

The company attributed this to inventory ownership, supply-chain efficiencies and a move into higher-margin categories including electronics, home decor and gourmet foods.

Swiggy, which went public in 2024, is yet to turn profitable. Earlier this month, it set a fiscal 2031 target to turn earnings per share positive.

RISING COSTS

The shift, however, would result in higher working capital to fund purchases and manage stock, brokerage Jefferies said in a note. Eternal said last month that working capital at Blinkit was "largely driven by inventory ownership".

Swiggy and Eternal have been investing heavily in quick commerce to expand beyond groceries into higher-margin categories, jostling for consumer attention alongside deep-pocketed rivals such as Amazon India AMZN.O, Walmart's WMT.N Flipkart and Reliance RELI.NS.

Smaller rival Zepto is looking to raise up to $837 million in a highly anticipated public listing this year.

These platforms operate marketplace models, limiting their ability to profit from inventory-led products and control pricing, especially in quick commerce, Akshay D'Souza, a consumer sector consultant, said.

For Swiggy, the new status is only a part of a broader route to profitability, D'Souza said, adding the company must also grow sales of higher-margin premium goods and build its private-label portfolio.

($1 = 95.7525 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Abinaya V and Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

(([email protected];))

Aug 18 (Reuters) - Swiggy Ltd SWIG.NS:

• SWIGGY - NAMES HIMAVANT KURNALA AS INSTAMART'S CHIEF GROWTH AND PRODUCT OFFICER

• SWIGGY - NAMES NITESH GARG AS INSTAMART'S CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

• SWIGGY - NAMES SAURAV GOYAL AS FOOD MARKETPLACE'S CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Source text: [ID:]

Further company coverage: SWIG.NS

(([email protected];;))

By Arpan Chaturvedi and Dhwani Pandya

MUMBAI, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Maharashtra state's food safety chief has intensified a crackdown on the food and grocery industries, suspending the permits of 12 warehouses of Indian grocery giants Eternal ETEA.NS, Swiggy SWIG.NS and Zepto after finding cockroach infestations and other unhygienic conditions.

The latest raids targeting the "quick commerce" sector, where companies deliver groceries within minutes, come after the state's new food safety head, Tukaram Mundhe, 51, shut some of Mumbai's most popular eateries for poor hygiene.

Reports of food contamination are common in India's local eateries, and Maharashtra's drive and Mundhe are gathering social media attention because historically there has been little enforcement of food safety standards.

Earlier this week, Mundhe's department shut four Domino's DPZ.O outlets, a brand that is India's biggest fast-food chain and typically considered to have stricter safety protocols.

The state's FDA said in a statement on Friday that it had inspected 86 establishments, issued 60 "improvement notices", and suspended the permits of five warehouses of Eternal's Blinkit, five of Zepto's, and two of Swiggy's Instamart.

Swiggy and Eternal declined to comment, and Zepto did not respond to queries from Reuters.

Swiggy and Zepto have roughly 1,100 delivery outlets each in India, and Blinkit has 2,200, according to Datum Intelligence.

At one of the food storage facilities of Blinkit, India's biggest quick commerce company, according to the release from Mundhe's office on Friday, inspectors found a cockroach infestation and rotten vegetables, and inspections at other sites turned up rodent droppings and unhygienic conditions.

At a Zepto warehouse in Nashik in northwestern Maharashtra state, delivery staff were entering storage areas in street footwear, raising cross-contamination risks, the state FDA statement also said.

Other photos shared by the state FDA showed rusted and dirty storage racks, with cockroaches crawling around food items.

"We will not tolerate any playing with public health," Mundhe said in the FDA statement, warning of tougher action against unsafe food preparation and unhygienic food storage.

(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi and Dhwani Pandya; Writing by Aftab Ahmed and Aditya Kalra; Editing by Tom Hogue)

(([email protected]; +91 99109 33884;))

** India's Swiggy SWIG.NS laid out long-term growth targets on Thursday, aiming to achieve 100 billion rupees ($1.05 billion) in annual core earnings by fiscal 2031

** Shares down 1.8% at 283.55 rupees on Friday, after climbing as much as 5.2% in the previous session

FY31 AMBITIONS PUT EXECUTION IN FOCUS

** Nomura ("Buy," PT: 435 rupees) says Swiggy's goal of building a 100 billion-rupee core earnings business by FY31 hinges on scaling quick commerce and out-of-home businesses while sustaining food-delivery growth

** Emkay Global ("Buy," PT: 350 rupees) says Swiggy's profitability target is about twice its FY31 estimate and will require significant execution, particularly in quick commerce and Toing

** Morgan Stanley ("Equal-weight," PT: 328 rupees) says ambitious FY31 targets will need execution to translate into value creation, adding food delivery remains a steady growth engine while quick commerce is showing improving retention and power-user metrics

** Jefferies ("Buy," PT: 435 rupees) says quick commerce remains Swiggy's biggest growth driver, supported by better retention, faster delivery and private-label offerings

($1 = 95.2225 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]; 8800437922))

Aug 6 (Reuters) - India's Swiggy SWIG.NS is targetting core earnings of 100 billion rupees ($1.05 billion) by fiscal year 2031, driven by growth in its food delivery and quick-commerce unit Instamart, the company said on Thursday.

($1 = 95.1525 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

(([email protected]; 8800437922;))

Recasts with details on margins in paragraph 4, executive comment in paragraph 8

July 30 (Reuters) - India's Swiggy SWIG.NS said on Thursday its quarterly loss narrowed and a key profitability metric at its quick-delivery platform Instamart improved, while it plans to add more distribution hubs to drive growth.

The food delivery service provider said its consolidated net loss narrowed to 7.91 billion rupees ($82.67 million) for the first quarter ended June 30, while revenue rose to 68.12 billion rupees.

Analysts had expected a loss of 7.2 billion rupees and revenue of 65.21 billion rupees, according to data from LSEG.

Instamart, which delivers everything from eggs to smartphones within minutes, posted a contribution margin - revenue remaining after variable costs - of negative 0.2% of gross order value, improving from negative 1.8% in the previous quarter.

Gross order value is the total value of goods sold through the platform before discounts.

The improvement comes as India's quick delivery apps race to expand their networks and cut delivery times, with Swiggy competing against Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit, Zepto and Tata-backed BigBasket.

Swiggy said higher advertisement income, customers returning more often and a wider range of goods at its dark stores, or distribution hubs dedicated to online orders, led the improvement.

"In the last 4 quarters, we have taken a ... choice in terms of choosing contribution over growth (for Instamart)," Sriharsha Majety, group CEO and co-founder at Swiggy, said on an earnings call.

The company also expects contribution margin to remain in the 0% to negative 1% range over the next couple of quarters. It plans to opens 75 new Instamart stores across the country in the September quarter.

Instamart currently has 1,171 stores across 131 cities.

The Indian food delivery sector, meanwhile, has been resilient despite some consumers cutting back spending, according to analysts.

($1 = 95.6800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Saikeerthi and Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru and Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Eileen Soreng)

(([email protected]; (+91) 8296756080))

** Shares of India's Swiggy SWIG.NS rise 6.3% to 285.33 rupees, their highest level since April 2026

** The food delivery company said on Tuesday former Flipkart executive Nandita Sinha would take charge as CEO of its quick-commerce arm Instamart

** Stock set for a third consecutive session of gains, if trend holds

** Company's shares up ahead of its first-quarter results on Thursday

** SWIG, on avg, rated "buy" by 28 analysts; median PT is 360 rupees - LSEG-compiled data

** Stock down 26.1%, YTD

(Reporting by Abhirami G in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]))

Swiggy Ltd announced that Amitesh Kumar Jha, chief executive of its Instamart quick-commerce unit, resigned to pursue other opportunities, effective immediately. He will be succeeded by Nandita Sinha, the former chief executive of Myntra, who joins on August 3. Instamart, which delivers groceries and daily essentials in over 130 cities, is Swiggy's fastest-growing but most loss-making business, generating revenue of ₹3,859 crore and a segment loss of ₹3,063 crore in the financial year to March 2026. The unit had been expanding its dark store network to 1,143 outlets while targeting contribution-margin breakeven by the June 2026 quarter. The resignation follows the departures of co-founder Lakshmi Nandan Reddy Obul and chief financial officer Rahul Bothra in July 2025.

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Adds details and background throughout

July 28 (Reuters) - India's Swiggy SWIG.NS said on Tuesday that it has appointed Nandita Sinha as its quick commerce arm Instamart's chief executive, effective August 3, after Amitesh Kumar Jha resigned.

The leadership rejig comes as competition intensifies in India's quick commerce sector, where companies are racing to expand dark store networks, improve delivery speeds, and capture the rapidly evolving $11.5-billion market.

Sinha is the former CEO of Indian fashion e-commerce firm Myntra and brings more than 20 years of leadership experience across companies such as Flipkart, Britannia BRIT.NS and Hindustan Unilever HLL.NS.

Swiggy's investors have raised concerns about the slowing growth in Instamart and intensifying competition from Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit and IPO-bound Zepto.

Amazon AMZN.O and Walmart's WMT.O IPO-bound Flipkart have also been speeding up expansion of their quick commerce businesses in India, with a focus on smaller cities, as the global giants compete in a sector dominated by domestic players.

Swiggy is set to report its first-quarter earnings on Thursday.

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

(([email protected]; +91 9558725583;))

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI, July 27 (Reuters) - India has ordered makers of high-caffeine beverages sold as "energy drinks" to stop using that description, rejecting efforts to stall the regulatory intervention in a fast-growing market expected to be worth $1.6 billion by 2028, according to documents and sources.

India's food safety regulator said on social media in early July it had issued notices to companies saying there were no Indian standards for such products and claims that a beverage "vitalizes body and mind" or can "aid in general weakness" were misleading. It gave no further details.

In private, the message from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) was even tougher: Pepsi PEP.O, Red Bull, Monster Beverage MNST.O, billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance RELI.NS and Hell Energy must drop "energy drink" — or any similar descriptor, according to confidential documents and people familiar with the matter.

The move has triggered a standoff with companies, who fear removing the category label could damage brands built around instant-energy claims and disrupt sales.

At a closed-door meeting with senior industry executives on Friday, FSSAI Chief Executive Rajit Punhani rejected arguments over the business impact, saying companies were free to challenge the decision in court, two people familiar with the discussion said.

FSSAI and Punhani did not respond to Reuters queries. Pepsi declined to comment, while the other companies did not respond. Reuters is first to report the lobbying efforts and India's decision.

An Indian government source said the industry agreed to comply with the labelling change after the Friday discussion, and the FSSAI has given them 90 days to comply.

Energy drinks have sparked health concerns among some regulators globally who worry they contain high caffeine, sugar and taurine, an amino acid. High-caffeine energy drinks will be banned for under-16s in England from April next year, and some regions in Pakistan mandate they be called "stimulant drinks".

INDUSTRY WOES, 'ELECTRIFYING ENERGY' ADS

The energy drinks business is built on instant-energy marketing.

Red Bull's "Gives You Wiiings" slogan is globally famous, while Pepsi promotes its Sting energy drink in Indian ads that show it sends lightning through one's body, giving "electrifying energy".

The Indian Beverage Association, which represents major companies, said it was committed to complying with regulations and engaging constructively with regulators on science-based policy.

But in a confidential July 6 letter to FSSAI, it said public disclosure of preliminary notices could damage reputations, disrupt operations and confuse consumers. It urged a "risk-based enforcement approach".

"Regular stakeholder consultations before implementing significant interpretational changes would facilitate smoother compliance, reduce litigation," the association said, adding a "predictable, consultative and transparent" framework was essential.

'I AM ADDICTED'

India's energy-drinks market boomed after Pepsi launched Sting in 2017. Its 20-rupee ($0.21) plastic bottles proved popular among 15- to 19-year-olds and in rural areas, helping make it a market leader, Euromonitor says.

Retail sales are projected to reach $1.6 billion by 2028, growing 12.6% annually, faster than in the United States and China. Volumes rose nearly 100% annually between 2018 and 2023, Euromonitor says.

"Every time when we feel hungry or go out for a smoke, I buy one drink. It fills my stomach and it gives me strength to work," said Sunny Rajvansi, 24, a bike mechanic in Uttar Pradesh state, who consumes Sting and Reliance's Campa Energy.

"I feel I am addicted to them."

This month, India's Rajasthan state has seized thousands of Sting, Campa Energy and Red Bull as part of its enforcement drive, the government's social media posts show.

On July 8, the state also told e-commerce companies including Amazon AMZN.O, Walmart's Flipkart, Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit and Swiggy SWIG.NS Instamart to ensure no product was promoted as an "energy drink", a letter showed.

The e-commerce companies did not respond to Reuters queries.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Saad Sayeed)

((Email: [email protected]; X: @adityakalra;))

** Online food delivery platforms Eternal ETEA.NS and Swiggy SWIG.NS shares fall 3% and 5.2%, respectively

** Drop after Moneycontrol reports that Walmart WMT.O-owned Flipkart plans to enter India's online food-delivery market in the coming weeks, signaling intensifying competition in the sector

** Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy tells Moneycontrol the launch begins at a limited scale before a broader rollout, mirroring the company's approach with quick-commerce unit Flipkart Minutes

** The prospect of another well-funded competitor could raise concerns over pricing, customer-acquisition spending and margin pressure across the sector

** Separately, Swiggy approves a proposal to cap total foreign ownership at 49.5%, which shareholders will consider at its August 18 annual general meeting; foreign ownership in firm stands at 49.76%

** UBS says proposed cap leaves little room for further foreign investment

** Swiggy is down 10.3% this week, Eternal down 2.7%

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]; +91 9769003463;))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own. Updates to add graphic.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, July 23 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Nestlé NESN.S is at a crossroads in one of its most important markets. The $268 billion KitKat maker's India arm posted a 48% jump in its net profit for the three months ending June, fuelled by strong demand across cities and rural areas. But selling to more price-sensitive shoppers could come with future costs.

A 25% increase in sales powered Nestlé India's NEST.NS first quarter earnings. The unit is also increasingly profitable with its EBITDA margin rising to 24%, a more than two percentage point increase from the same period last year. Its Mumbai-listed shares rose as much as 3.5% after it published its results on Wednesday.

CEO Manish Tiwary said the gains came from selling to a wider group of customers. That's a sign that Nestlé's push into India's hinterland, launched in 2019, is paying off as it entices aspirational consumers to its Maggi brand of instant noodles and converts tea drinkers to its Nescafe coffee. During that period, its reach has tripled to 216,000 villages.

That push has also translated into market share gains in areas like chocolate. India's booming instant delivery apps, run by Eternal ETEA.NS and Swiggy SWIG.NS, turned out to be a net positive for Nestlé's packaged goods. This was helped by a 40% increase in promotional spending during the quarter and the ability to tailor the display of its products on these apps' virtual shelves.

Nestlé India's momentum mirrors a broader recovery at its parent. Under new boss Philipp Navratil, Nestlé sales grew 3.5% in the first quarter of 2026 and the Nespresso maker is also expanding its valuation premium over rivals like Unilever ULVR.L and Reckitt Benckiser RKT.L. India contributes roughly 2% to the Swiss behemoth's annual sales.

For now, Nestlé's push into the Indian countryside looks smart. For over a year, demand from India's rural shoppers has outpaced their urban counterparts. That's been fuelled by a combination of cash transfers to households by regional governments, benign inflation and a strong monsoon season that boosted farm incomes last year.

Yet risks for the local unit loom. Its sales have been partly boosted by New Delhi's cuts to indirect taxes in September, a tailwind that could fade later this year, says Abhishek Mathur, lead analyst for India institutional equities at brokerage Systematix. Higher advertising spending and rising costs could eventually squeeze margins too, if growth slows.

Rural shoppers also tend to be more vulnerable to climate crises and price shocks. Nestlé has historically skewed towards wealthy city dwellers shielded it from those vagaries, which is reflected in its valuation: its Indian unit trades at 68 times its future earnings, higher than 43 times for Hindustan Unilever HLL.NS, which reaches nine out of 10 Indian households. That suggests reaching the widest pool of Indian customers comes with its own risks.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

Nestlé India on July 22 reported a 48% jump in consolidated net profit for the three months ended June 30 to 9.59 billion rupees ($99.35 million). Sales of products increased 25% from the same period last year to 63.6 billion rupees.

(Editing by Aimee Donnellan; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on BOSE/[email protected]))

July 16 - Uber UBER.N will buy Delivery Hero DHER.DE in a deal valuing the German firm at $14.8 billion to create the largest food-delivery group outside China and stave off intensifying competition.

The transaction continues a consolidation spurred by a slowdown in orders from the pandemic peaks as well as pressure to improve margins.

Here are details on how the food-delivery companies stack up globally:

($1 = 6.7682 Chinese yuan renminbi)

($1 = 0.8723 euros)

($1 = 96.3450 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Anzar Mehraj in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

(([email protected]))

July 15 (Reuters) - Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd HPCL.NS:

• SWIGGY'S INSTAMART LAUNCHES LPG CYLINDER DELIVERY IN PARTNERSHIP WITH HPCL - STATEMENT

Further company coverage: HPCL.NS

(([email protected];))

July 10 (Reuters) - Swiggy Ltd SWIG.NS:

• RECEIVED A PROHIBITION ORDER FROM THE FOOD SAFETY AND STANDARDS AUTHORITY OF INDIA

• RECEIVED MODIFIED FSSAI LICENCE ON JULY 09, 2026

• NO MAJOR FINANCIAL IMPACT ON OVERALL OPERATIONS FINANCIAL POSITION OF CO

• NO MONETARY PENALTY HAS BEEN IMPOSED

• PROHIBITION ORDER FROM FSSAI IN RELATION TO CO’S FOOD ORDERING AND DELIVERY PLATFORM APPLICATION “TOING”

Further company coverage: SWIG.NS

(([email protected];))

July 7 (Reuters) - Swiggy Ltd SWIG.NS:

• SWIGGY - AGGREGATE FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN SWIGGY AT 49.76% AS OF JULY 06, 2026

• SWIGGY - SAID FOREIGN INVESTMENT DOES NOT RESULT IN ANY CHANGE TO OWNERSHIP OR CONTROL STATUS OF CO

Source text: ID:nBSEc4cXl2

Further company coverage: SWIG.NS

(([email protected];))

Adds Amazon statement; paragraphs 1,7,8

By Dhwani Pandya

MUMBAI, June 24 (Reuters) - Walmart's WMT.O Flipkart and Amazon said on Wednesday they are speeding up expansion of their "quick commerce" business in India with a focus on smaller cities, as the two global giants compete in the $11-billion sector dominated by domestic players.

Flipkart and Amazon AMZN.O are late entrants to the space that has boomed in India ​and sees companies home delivering everything from iPhones to milk within ⁠10 to 30 minutes from neighbourhood warehouses - a phenomenon that has reshaped shopping patterns in the world's most populous ​nation.

While Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit has over 2,200 stores in India, and Swiggy's SWIG.NS Instamart has more than 1,100, Amazon has around 500 data from Datum Intelligence shows.

Flipkart said its store count has touched 1,000, but it plans to take it to 1,500 within months.

Preparing for its Mumbai listing, Flipkart is focusing more on smaller towns and cities, which make up 70% of its footprint of more than 130 cities, Kunal Gupta, head of Flipkart "Minutes", said in an interview.

People in smaller cities "build a slightly larger" average order value basket as they are value conscious, Gupta added, saying it has expanded aggressively in the eastern state of Bihar - one of the nation's poorest regions.

In a statement, Amazon said it was expanding its ultra-fast delivery service "Now" to 300 Indian cities, from more than 15 now.

Chief Executive Andy Jassy, who is on an India tour, visited one of its quick commerce warehouses and posed for a photograph posted on the company website.

FIVE VARIETIES OF AVOCADOS

E-commerce is a popular shopping medium in India, but quick commerce is fast catching up. However, India's government in January ordered companies to stop promoting their grocery deliveries as a "10-minute" service amid rider safety concerns.

While Flipkart didn't disclose numbers, it said in a press statement its orders have grown five times in the past one year, with smaller towns and cities recording 42 times higher sales.

In Bengaluru, Flipkart's offerings now extend to five types of avocado to cater to evolving urban tastes, while in smaller cities the focus remains on staples and essentials, Gupta said.

Datum Intelligence data showed Blinkit was already servicing 3 million orders per day and Swiggy was doing 1.25 million. Flipkart lags with 820,000 daily orders, while Amazon Now clocks 470,000 a day.

The average order value of Flipkart service was however highest at 700 rupees ($7.39), the data added.

Datum's founder Satish Meena said it would be difficult for Flipkart to take share from Blinkit, where customers look for convenience and are from high income households.

(Reporting by Dhwani Pandya; Editing by Aditya Kalra, Alexandra Hudson)

(([email protected];))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Ujjaini Dutta

BENGALURU, June 16 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India's Zepto has disrupted the distribution edge held by fast-moving consumer goods companies including Unilever ULVR.L and Nestle NESN.S, and amped up competition for the country's food delivery duopoly. Yet the startup's rush to debut in Mumbai as soon as July at a time when local equity markets are battered reveals its financial desperation: losses are deepening and venture capital funding is increasingly hard to come by. Accepting a valuation markdown will be the price of its admission into public markets.

The 5-year-old company founded by Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra aims to raise just shy of $1 billion to fund its mission of speedily delivering daily essentials and groceries to customers' doorsteps. There's plenty of demand for its services that boast a 12-minute median delivery time: Zepto's revenue grew 103% from the previous year to 226 billion rupees ($2.39 billion) in the 12 months to the end of March 2026.

Yet losses are mounting as it shovels money into expanding its dark store network and acquiring customers. Zepto's net loss widened 26% to 59 billion rupees for the full financial year. It lacks a profitable core business to cushion its bottom line, unlike food delivery companies $7 billion Prosus-backed PRX.AS Swiggy SWIG.NS and rival Zomato. Nor does it have a rich parent like Tata group, owner of grocer BigBasket, which is also vying to provide instant gratification to affluent Indians.

The biggest problem is Zepto's emptying war chest. Take the company's total cash balance of 56.80 billion rupees ($600 million) at end of March, strip out lease liabilities of 27.1 billion rupees and net cash shrinks to 29.7 billion rupees, implying enough to sustain just three quarters of operating activities or as little as five months using a more conservative calculation of its liquidity.

The market won't support a rich valuation, warns Satish Meena, founder of e-commerce consultancy Datum Intelligence, especially with two stronger listed rivals. Swiggy, whose stock languishes 34% below its 2024 IPO price, trades at 2.5 times this year's estimated sales, per LSEG. On that multiple Zepto would be worth $5.9 billion, less than the $7 billion valuation it achieved in its October funding round and well short of the up to $10 billion touted in local media. About half the workforce leaves Zepto every year; executives can only hope any new investors it attracts stick around for longer.

Follow Ujjaini Dutta on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

India's Zepto is selling new shares worth up to 80.1 billion rupees ($837 million) in its initial public offering, the quick commerce company's prospectus published on June 8 showed. Existing investors including ​Nexus Ventures and Contrary ZEP Holdings will sell up to 113.5 million shares in the offering.

Zepto plans to use proceeds from the IPO to expand its network of dark stores, invest in technology and cloud infrastructure as well as ​to fund acquisitions. The firm was valued at $7 billion in October, when it raised $450 million.

Zepto is targeting a July listing, the Economic Times reported on June 9, citing people aware of the matter.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on DUTTA/[email protected]))

May 21 (Reuters) - Swiggy Ltd SWIG.NS:

• RESOLUTION FOR ALTERATION OF ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION FELL SHORT OF REQUIRED THRESHOLD BY 2.65%

Source text: [ID:]

Further company coverage: SWIG.NS

(([email protected];;))

May 13 (Reuters) - Swiggy Ltd SWIG.NS:

• SWIGGY - CLARIFIES ON PROPOSED AMENDMENT FOR ALTERATION OF ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION OF CO

• SWIGGY - PROPOSED AMENDMENT FORMS PART OF BROADER ENDEAVOUR TO BECOME INDIAN OWNED, CONTROLLED CO

• SWIGGY - PROPOSED AMENDMENTS DO NOT, BY THEMSELVES, RESULT IN CO BEING CLASSIFIED AS AN IOCC

• SWIGGY-IMPORTANT TO PUT IN PLACE GOVERNANCE TO BECOME IOCC THROUGH DOMESTICALLY CONTROLLED BOARD, MAJORITY DOMESTIC SHAREHOLDING

Source text: ID:nNSEFjwSB

Further company coverage: SWIG.NS

(([email protected];))

Adds details throughout

May 11 (Reuters) - Shares of Indian food delivery major Swiggy SWIG.NS fell as much as 6.8% on Monday, heading for their worst session in more than a month, as slowing growth in its quick-commerce business and intensifying competition overshadowed a narrower fourth-quarter loss.

The stock was on track for its biggest intraday percentage drop since April 2.

Investor concerns centred on Swiggy losing quick-commerce market share to rival Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit, while competition from players such as Zepto, Amazon AMZN.O and Walmart-backed Flipkart WMT.O remains intense, analysts said.

On Friday, Swiggy reported a consolidated loss of 8 billion rupees ($84.3 million) for the three months ended March 31, compared with 10.65 billion rupees in the previous quarter.

JPMorgan said growth at Swiggy's quick commerce arm Instamart lagged peers, with gross order value rising 68.8%, well below Blinkit's 95.4% increase, suggesting continued market-share losses.

Morgan Stanley said while Swiggy's food delivery business recorded its strongest growth in years and margins improved, investor focus remains on execution and profitability in quick commerce amid aggressive competition.

($1 = 94.9500 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)

(([email protected] | X: https://twitter.com/SurbhiMisra_ |;))

April 28 (Reuters) - Indian online delivery firm EternalETEA.NS reported a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday, helped by continued growth in its quick-commerce unit Blinkit and steady expansion in its core food delivery business.

The Gurugram-based company, which also operates food delivery unit Zomato, posted a consolidated net profit of 1.74 billion rupees ($18.40 million)for the quarter ended March 31, above analysts estimates of 1.21 billion rupees, per data compiled by LSEG.

($1 = 94.5450 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru)

(([email protected] | X: https://twitter.com/SurbhiMisra_ |;))

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI, April 23 (Reuters) - India's biggest food delivery app Zomato has agreed to drop a contract term that penalized restaurants for offering cheaper meals to walk-in diners, a company source said, after opposition from eateries who said the policy undermined their pricing decisions.

Eternal's ETEA.NS Zomato app has 24 million consumers and 300,000 listed restaurants. As demand for food delivery boomed, Eternal shares have more than doubled since their 2021 listing and the company is valued at nearly $26 billion.

For years, Zomato has had a "charges for price disparity" clause in its contracts, which allowed it to fine restaurants if their eat-in or their own delivery prices were lower than those listed on the Zomato app. Zomato's contracts also stated that it could use mystery shopping, or secretive restaurant visits, among other tactics to check that outlets were not undercutting the app in price, according to contracts seen by Reuters.

The clause was never enforced but has been dropped now, a Zomato source said on Thursday, without explaining the rationale for the decision.

Reuters is first to report Zomato's decision, as a review of publicly available Zomato policy for restaurants also showed the clause has been dropped.

Zomato did not respond to Reuters queries.

With players like Domino's DPZ.O and KFC 3420.T competing with millions of restaurants in India, the country's $94 billion food services market is set to be worth $153 billion by 2031, Mordor Intelligence estimates.

ANTITRUST RISK OF CLAUSE

According to Zomato's contracts, it would charge a fine equal to "three times the differential amount" per order. This was opposed by the National Restaurant Association of India as it restricted their pricing ability, said Sagar J. Daryani, president of the group that represents over 500,000 outlets.

"It’s our product and should be our pricing. We appreciate their assurance that price parity will no longer be enforced," Daryani told Reuters.

Five lawyers and one former Indian antitrust official who reviewed the clause in the Zomato agreement said it was prone to hurt competition and could have faced scrutiny from regulators.

They referred to how a complaint by a hotels body led to a 2022 decision by India's antitrust watchdog which asked travel booking websites MakeMyTrip and GoIbibo to remove clauses that prohibited hotels from offering lower rates to other agents.

"The clause has resemblance to those found to be in violation in India hotel booking business ... though similar clauses have faced scrutiny world over, the company would have needed to provide an objective justification to defend it," said Rahul Goel, antitrust partner at India's AnantLaw.

An Indian antitrust investigation in 2024 also found Zomato and rival Swiggy breached competition laws with their business practices favouring select restaurants, Reuters has reported. The companies deny any wrongdoing.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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** Eternal ETEA.NS rises ~4.4%, peer Swiggy SWIG.NS gains as much as 5% in broad market rally on hopes Iran war could end soon

** ETEA, SWIG lost 7.03% and 13.82%, respectively, in March on concerns over LPG shortages, elevated crude prices due to Iran war

** HDFC Securities upgrades ETEA to "buy" from "add", raises FY27, FY2028 profit estimates

** Says volume impact due to LPG shortages remains minimal

** Adds minimum orders for discounted sales raised, aiding profitability; says Blinkit's execution, market share gains likely to improve

** Reiterates "buy" on SWIG; calls it a steal after recent drop

** YTD, ETEA sheds 14%, SWIG slips 31%; Nifty 50 .NSEI falls 12.5%

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru)

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By Haripriya Suresh

BENGALURU, March 26 (Reuters) - Indian corporate insurance startup Plum said on Thursday it has raised 1.93 billion rupees ($20.6 million) as part of its Series B funding round led by Peak XV Partners, valuing the company at 11.81 billion rupees, according to CEO Abhishek Poddar.

GMO Venture Partners and existing investor Tanglin Venture Partners also participated in the round.

The Bengaluru-based company plans to use the fresh capital to scale marketing and sales efforts to expand its presence in India's corporate insurance market, deepen technology investments - particularly in AI-driven claims operations - and expand into preventive and primary healthcare, Poddar said.

Until last year, Plum generated its revenue purely from insurance broking. Its newer healthcare vertical, however, is soon expected to account for a larger share of its revenue mix.

"If I look at the revenue distribution, 80% insurance and 20% healthcare. Very quickly, healthcare has become significant for us, and it's growing in triple digits," Poddar said.

"Our prediction is that healthcare within our corporate business would be roughly 40% to 45% within the next couple of years."

The company is already seeing substantial efficiency gains from AI, especially in claims-processing, which forms the bulk of its operations, Poddar added.

"In the last four years, our claims volume has grown by around 50 times. We have been able to scale by 50 times with a team that would have grown by two times. That's the kind of scale advantage and efficiency advantage that you can generate using AI," he said.

Plum, backed by Tiger Global, counts Meesho MEES.NS, PhonePe PHOP.NS, Swiggy SWIG.NS, Urban Company URBN.NS and Zomato ETEA.NS among its clients.

($1 = 93.8860 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)

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By Manoj Kumar

NEW DELHI, March 17 (Reuters) - An Indian parliamentary panel has recommended mandatory registration of gig workers on a national labour database, while calling for clearer legal obligations for digital platforms to contribute to their social security.

The Standing Committee on Labour said in a report on Tuesday that gig workers on digital platforms had become an "integral part of the modern supply chain," particularly in cities delivering food, transport and other on-demand services, but many remained outside formal labour registration and social security systems.

To bridge the gap, the committee has recommended that all platform aggregators, such as Swiggy SWIG.NS, Ola OLAE.NS and Zomato, must register gig workers on the government's e-Shram portal, a national database for unorganised workers.

Engagement of such workers should be linked to this registration, the panel said.

The recommendations come as India's gig economy expands rapidly, with millions working on app-based platforms in sectors such as ride-hailing, logistics and food delivery.

The Indian government announced in November last year the implementation of four labour codes, overhauling decades-old rules governing factories and workers while promising social security benefits for gig and platform workers.

These benefits have not been implemented so far.

There are no official estimates for the size of India's gig economy, although government think tank NITI Aayog expects the sector to employ 23.5 million people, or about 7% of the non-farm workforce, by 2030.

The committee also proposed that registration remain valid for at least one year, with gig workers continuing to receive basic social security benefits, including insurance and accident cover, even if they stop working with a particular aggregator.

It also urged the government to include clearer provisions for gig and platform workers in labour codes, defining aggregator responsibilities and ensuring contributions to social security schemes.

The report further called for stronger social security coverage for workers in non-traditional employment arrangements as India's digital economy evolves.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Ujjaini Dutta

BENGALURU, Feb 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Is quick commerce a viable business? India's $9.3 billion Swiggy SWIG.NS, backed by Prosus PRX.AS and SoftBank's Vision Fund, which offers deliveries of everything from onions to Bluetooth speakers in as little as 10 minutes, is under pressure to stem losses at its Instamart unit without sacrificing growth. But rivals are stepping up discounts to grab market share. As long as that persists, Swiggy and others may find both profit and growth elusive in the sector.

The $11.5 billion sector's common refrain is that companies have to sacrifice near-term profits to acquire users and scale. In the three months to December, Swiggy's quick commerce revenue jumped to 10.2 billion Indian rupees ($112.05 million), up a blistering 76% year-on-year; rival Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit surged nearly ninefold over the same period. Most of that growth is underpinned by heavy discounts to lure shoppers, better product mix as well as building out warehouses known as dark stores that serve as distribution centres.

But Swiggy boss Sriharsha Majety has set a goal for the business to achieve a key profitability metric it calls "contribution margin breakeven" - when revenue from each order covers its direct fulfilment costs - in the quarter ending June. Currently, revenue per order is 99 rupees ($1.09) and direct cost per order including discounts is 118 rupees ($1.30), according to calculations from Bernstein. In theory, cutting back on discounts will help, as will charging higher commissions from suppliers.

The problem is, competition from Walmart's WMT.O Flipkart, Blinkit and Zepto, which is readying an initial public offering, is intensifying, leaving Swiggy with little room to manoeuvre. Grocery sales, a category seen as most likely to secure repeat customers, account for a falling share of its overall gross order value. This stood at 68% as of December, down from 84% in March. Average monthly orders per Instamart user have fallen to 2.8 in the recent quarter, compared to 3.5 a year ago, according to Bernstein, although the average order value has increased 40%.

Scaling back on spending risks eroding Swiggy's market share or worse. Blinkit, for instance, has refrained from discounts and managed to squeeze out an adjusted EBITDA in the latest quarter. But that's probably unsustainable, as the business is forecast to be back in the red in three months to March, per analyst forecasts on Visible Alpha. Swiggy's quest for sustainable earnings in quick commerce may end in futility.

Follow Ujjaini Dutta on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

India’s Swiggy on January 29 posted a consolidated loss of 10.65 billion Indian rupees for the quarter ended December 31, compared with 10.92 billion rupees in the previous quarter. Losses remained wider than the 7.99 billion rupees it reported a year earlier.

The company said it is confident of achieving contribution-margin break-even - when revenue from each order covers its direct fulfilment costs - by June. The contribution margin for its quick commerce arm stood at negative 2.5%.

(Editing by Robyn Mak; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on DUTTA/[email protected]))

By Chandini Monnappa and Praveen Paramasivam

MUMBAI, Feb 16 (Reuters) - India's Reliance Industries RELI.NS retail unit is piloting a search-and-discovery platform in a bid to more closely integrate its store and online shopping experiences, a top executive said on Monday.

Reliance Retail is the country's largest retailer, operating 19,340 stores nationwide and selling everything from electronics and apparel to groceries to more than 349 million customers.

The company is piloting the platform at its apparel stores such as Trends and Yousta, and plans to roll it out at its retail chain Smart Bazaar later this year, said Damodar Mall, chief executive officer of Grocery Retail at Reliance Retail.

Customers can scan a QR code at stores to use the platform, which then helps them discover and search for products tailored to their preferences, Mall said on the sidelines of the Retail Leadership Summit in Mumbai.

He did not disclose an investment amount or other operational details for the new platform.

India's retail sector faces intensifying competition from online shopping platforms such as Amazon's AMZN.O India unit and Walmart WMT.N-backed Flipkart, while quick commerce firms such as Swiggy's SWIG.NS Instamart, Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit and Zepto have been eating up market share rapidly.

Reliance's online grocery delivery service JioMart expanded to compete in the 10-minute delivery segment in 2025.

Festive discounting, investment in hyperlocal delivery and a one-off impact from India's new labour code trimmed core margins at the retail business to 8% in the third quarter from 8.6% a year earlier.

The pace of change in India's retail sector remains intense, Mall said, though it is unfolding against the backdrop of a still-expanding consumption market, which allows room for shifts in market share without constraining overall growth, he added.

(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa and Praveen Paramasivam in Mumbai; Writing by Surbhi Misra and Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

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By Manoj Kumar and Shubham Batra

NEW DELHI, Feb 11 (Reuters) - India plans to revise the base year of key economic indicators, including consumer price index, gross domestic product and industrial output, every three to five years to better capture structural changes in the economy, a top official said on Wednesday.

A regular revision cycle will improve "user confidence by making the statistical system more responsive to economic change," said Saurabh Garg, Secretary at the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), which releases retail inflation, GDP and industrial output data.

MoSPI plans to revise the GDP base year every five years and conduct the next household consumption survey after a three-year gap, Garg added.

The government is updating the base year for CPI data after more than a decade. The new series, based on the 2023/24 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, is due to be released on Thursday.

The revised CPI basket expands to 358 weighted items from 299, with higher coverage of services and modern consumption, while adding rural house rent for the first time.

It will reflect shifts in spending patterns across food, housing and services, and will include back data and a linking factor to ensure continuity with the previous series, Garg said.

India's annual retail inflation likely rose for a third straight month to 2.4% in January, according to a Reuters poll of economists, as firming food prices and higher gold and silver costs coincided with fading favourable base effects.

Food's share in household spending has declined, with recent surveys showing it accounts for 39.7% of urban expenditure, down from about 43% in 2011-12. In rural areas, it accounts for 47%, down from 53%.

As part of methodology upgrades, the ministry has begun collecting prices from e-commerce and digital platforms, including Amazon and Swiggy, across 12 cities with populations above 2.5 million, Garg said.

Prices for airline tickets and OTT streaming services such as Netflix are also being added, he said.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Shubham Batra; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

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** Indian delivery platform Swiggy SWIG.NS sheds 6.2% to 307.05 rupees

** EBITDA losses at its quick-commerce unit Instamart - its biggest revenue generator - widen sequentially, even as contribution and EBITDA margins improve

** However, at the group-level, SWIG reports narrower sequential loss; reaffirms outlook for contribution margin break-even by Q1 FY27

** "There are a lot of unanswered questions especially on quick-commerce's profitability path," says Jefferies as raises its estimates for Instamart's losses going ahead

** Elara Capital says Q3 results were a "mixed bag" but says it expects aggressive focus on profitability for quick-commerce as management maintained it outlook for contribution margin break-even

** YTD, SWIG down 20.5%

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

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